Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is certainly a heck of a wealth creator, with AAPL stock up almost 2,000% in the last 10 years. And it’s probably no surprise that while Apple stock investors have reaped the rewards, so have many at the highest levels of the tech company’s management.
But recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook decided it’s time to share that wealth.
Cook, who is rapidly approaching billionaire status, announced Friday that he’s donating hundreds of millions of dollars to charity.
This puts the AAPL stock exec in the ranks of other do-good CEOs including Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A, NYSE:BRK.B), Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB). All three of these high-profile — and high net-worth — business leaders have signed on to the “Giving Pledge,” a commitment among the world’s wealthiest individuals to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charity.
While Cook differs in that he hasn’t signed this specific pledge or joined forces with other big earners, he does share the aims of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) co-founder Jack Ma in that he will start his own charitable efforts.
Of course, it’s a good situation to be in where you have so much dough you can give hundreds of millions away. The top AAPL stock exec made more than $9 million in salary last year alone and had about $145 million worth of stock awards vested at the end of 2014.
If that’s not crazy enough, he’s got another $536 million in stock awards on the way!
It’s interesting that Cook’s predecessor at Apple, Steve Jobs, was criticized while he was alive for not doing enough for charities — even though it turned out he was doing it quietly all along. This may have colored Tim Cook’s efforts to give back in a more public way.
But any way you slice it, the AAPL stock leader isn’t going to be living in a shanty after the giving is done.
There’s plenty of wealth left over.
Jeff Reeves is the editor of InvestorPlace.com and the author of The Frugal Investor’s Guide to Finding Great Stocks. Write him at editor@investorplace.com or follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
