Apple's Tim Cook Pledges To Donate Personal Fortune To Charity

Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has announced he will give away his personal wealth before he dies.

Apple CEO Tim Cook pledged to donate all of his personal fortune to philanthropic causes before he dies.

The technology chief made the commitment to bequeath his fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars to charities during an interview with Fortune magazine on Thursday.

AIDS, human rights, and immigration reform are all issues close to Cook's heart, however he did not divulge which organizations would be the beneficiaries of his personal wealth.

"You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripple for change," Cook told Fortune.

The California technology company is the world's most profitable corporation, and Cook is believed to be worth some $800 million: He holds Apple stock worth an estimated $120 million and restricted stock worth $665 million, according to Fortune.

Cook is the latest in an exclusive list of wealthy business leaders to pledge a large sum of his fortune to charity. In 2010, Microsoft founder Bill Gates launched The Giving Pledge Campaign, in an effort to convince billionaires or multimillionaires like Cook, to give away at least half of their fortunes. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and billionaire investor Warren Buffet have both made a commitment to the campaign.

But before he parts away with his money, the Apple boss promised to put his 10-year-old nephew through college.

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