VIDEO: Mark Zuckerberg and wife plan to give away almost all their $45bn fortune

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife’s pledge to give away virtually all of their $45bn (€42.5bn) in Facebook shares, has set a new philanthropic benchmark by committing their massive fortune to charitable causes while still in their early 30s.

Facebook’s chief executive and his wife, Priscilla Chan, unveiled the plan in an open letter to their newborn daughter, Max (short for Maxima), in a Facebook post, promising to donate 99% of their stock in the social-networking company “during our lives.”

The pledge puts Zuckerberg in the same league with other billionaires who are giving away the bulk of their wealth, including Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. The key difference is that Zuckerberg is starting at an earlier age, 31. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was created in 2000, the year the Microsoft co-founder turned 45.