Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced his new, $3 billion investment, with the tech entrepreneur revealing that his charity organization the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will invest the whopping amount of money into a program to help cure, prevent or manage all diseases.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is run by the Facebook CEO and his wife Priscilla Chan, revealed that they were setting up a new program called Chan Zuckerberg Science which would help the scientific community to tackle disease head-on. The $3 billion will come from the $45 billion the couple pledged to invest in their initiative last year, following the birth of their daughter. This money amounts to roughly 99% of Zuckerberg’s Facebook shares.
Watch the announcement below:
In a Facebook post detailing the announcement, Zuckerberg noted how “just four kinds of diseases cause the majority of deaths,” with Chan Zuckerberg Science set to focus on cancer, neurological disease, infectious disease and heart disease by developing and equipping scientists with “the right technology.”
Outlining the new program’s first project, Zuckerberg continued: “Our first project is creating the Biohub. We’re investing $600 million in a new research hub to bring scientists and engineers together from Stanford, UCSF, Berkeley, and the world-class engineering team we’re building at the Chan Zuckerberg,” adding that these individuals would work together to help build “new tools” to help the program achieve its lofty goal.
Zuckerberg concluded: “This is about the future we want for our daughter and children everywhere. If there’s a chance that we can help cure all diseases in our children’s lifetime, then we will do our part. Together, we have a real shot at leaving the world a better place for our children than we found it.”
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