Melinda French Gates urges new IPO fortunes to go toward giving

Melinda French Gates is pressing newly wealthy tech investors and employees to make philanthropy part of their plans as major public offerings create fresh fortunes. Her message comes as SpaceX has completed a record IPO and OpenAI and Anthropic are expected to follow, according to Fortune.

SpaceX raised $75 billion at a $1.77 trillion valuation in what Axios described as the largest IPO on record. Fortune reported that offerings from SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are expected to produce a new group of millionaires and billionaires tied to the companies and their investors.

Asked by Fortune what she would tell that group, French Gates said they should decide now to give away at least half of whatever they receive. “If you even have the ability to invest in these IPOs, believe me, you have the ability to give half away,” she told Fortune.

French Gates has long pushed large-scale giving among the ultra-rich. In 2010, she helped found the Giving Pledge, a commitment through which wealthy people can promise to donate their money during their lives or through their wills, according to the pledge’s website and Fortune.

French Gates has pledged to give away most of her resources during her lifetime. For years, Fortune reported, much of that work took place through the Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with Bill Gates and where she focused on global health causes.

She now runs Pivotal, her own organization, which supports causes including women’s health, women’s political power and caregiving, according to Fortune. Fortune reported that French Gates recently announced a $215 million philanthropic commitment to women’s health, with funding tied to areas including midlife health and menopause.

Bloomberg estimates French Gates’ net worth at $19 billion and ranks her No. 137 on its billionaires list. Fortune identified her as one of the world’s wealthiest people and framed her comments as advice to a new class of tech-rich beneficiaries of the IPO market.

The Giving Pledge has drawn more than 250 signatories, according to Fortune. Its members include co-founder Warren Buffett, Canva co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, MacKenzie Scott, Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky and Spanx founder Sara Blakely.

French Gates told Fortune she admires Scott, whose giving has included major donations to historically Black colleges and universities, and Alice Walton, a member of Walmart’s founding family who is building a new medical school. Fortune cited both as examples French Gates raised while discussing philanthropy.

French Gates has also argued that U.S. billionaires benefit from public goods and institutions. Fortune cited her view that people who become billionaires in the United States benefited from growing up in the country or arriving as immigrants, with roads, education and broad access to health care helping make business success possible.

She also cautioned wealthy people against showing off their money. French Gates told Fortune that conspicuous displays of wealth do not help anyone, while saying rich people can still buy nice things for themselves without being flashy.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.