Apple founder and recently retired CEO Steve Jobs has accumulated a personal fortune of $8.3 billion, but despite this, he is not known for his philanthropic contributions — at least, not publicly. According to the public record, he hasn’t given any money to charity in decades, and he reportedly declined to join Bill Gates’ and Warren E. Buffett’s Giving Pledge, a campaign to persuade the wealthiest to give away at least half their fortunes.
So is it time Jobs pulled a Bill Gates and start giving his money away?
The question is raised in a provocative column by Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times’ Dealbook blog.
Sorkin notes that Jobs has given an innumerable gifts to society in terms of technology, but hasn’t publicly given any of his personal $8.3 billion fortune away.
… the lack of public philanthropy by Mr. Jobs — long whispered about, but rarely said aloud — raises some important questions about the way the public views business and business people at a time when some “millionaires and billionaires” are criticized for not giving back enough while others like Mr. Jobs are lionized.
Sorkin notes that Jobs may well give anonymously. And he may have plans for his enormous wealth after he dies. But publicly, Jobs has done little for philanthropy, which Sorkin finds puzzling give Jobs’ disdain of wealth for wealth’s sake.
Sorkin also notes that Apple sits on a cash pile of $76 billion. Apple had corporate philanthropic programs when Jobs returned in 1997, but he closed them to concentrate on retuning the company to profitability. They have never been reinstated.
It’s also noted that Jobs has never spoken up about cancer or cancer research, unlike other celebrity survivors like Lance Armstrong.
What do you think? Has Steve been storing up his philanthropy for when it can garner his full attention, or does he simply intend to leave the world his legacy in a different way than Bill Gates and other philanthropist billionaires? Let us know in the comments.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
