Facebook founder to give away £30bn fortune

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has pledged that he and his wife Priscilla Chan will donate 99 per cent of their shares in the company to good causes, following the birth of their daughter Max.

Zuckerberg's shares in the company are currently valued at £30 billion (US$45 billion).

In a statement, posted to Facebook in the form of an open letter to his new child, Zuckerberg outlined that the plan to give away most of his fortune in his lifetime would start with a new project, called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

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The 31-year-old says that the goal of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is "to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation". It has already been supplied with funding that is believed will be worth close to £4.5 billion by 2018.

"Your mother and I don't yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future," Zuckerberg writes in his letter to Max. "You've already given us a reason to reflect on the world we hope you live in… Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a world better than ours today."

The charitable move has been applauded by many high-profile business people, including billionaire investor Warren Buffett, and has been interpreted by some observers as marking a fundamental shift in Zuckerberg's focus for the future.

BBC North America technology reporter Dave Lee suggests that Zuckerberg might well be eyeing a future in politics.

"Zuckerberg appears at ease hosting heads of state as he does in the company of his own development team," Lee says. "The days of Mark Zuckerberg being seen as a nerdy, awkward tech dork are well behind us. His ambition now is clearly to be a significant figure on the global political stage."