In a move that stunned his 4.4 million followers, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made a surprising announcement on Tuesday (April 7). The social media mogul—who is estimated to have a net worth of over $3 billion, shared on Twitter that he was donating $1 billion of his equity in Square to help with COVID-19 relief efforts.
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“I’m moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to #startsmall LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief,” he tweeted. “After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl’s health and education, and UBI.” Dorsey added a link to a Google Doc where he is openly tracking when and where he donates the money in an effort to be transparent with the public.
“Why now? The needs are increasingly urgent, and I want to see the impact in my lifetime,” the 43-year-old wrote. “I hope this inspires others to do something similar. Life is too short, so let’s do everything we can today to help people now.” Dorsey also stated that he decided to sell off Square instead of Twitter because he owns more in that company. Check out a few of his tweets below.