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Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune now exceeds $200 billion, and the three daughters he shares with Priscilla Chan, ages 10, 9 and 3, are not expected to receive most of it. The couple put that decision in writing more than a decade ago, in a letter announcing the birth of their first child. The promise was tied to a stake worth about $45 billion at the time. The letter spelled out what they would give up.
A Facebook Post Announcing a Baby Girl in December 2015 Also Carried a Pledge Worth About $45 Billion
On Dec. 1, 2015, Zuckerberg posted a letter to newborn daughter Max on Facebook. Alongside the birth announcement, the couple committed to give away 99% of their Facebook shares, now Meta shares, during their lifetimes. They said they would gift or otherwise direct the stock, or its after-tax sale proceeds, toward advancing human potential and promoting equality. Five years earlier, both had already signed a smaller version of the same promise.
Zuckerberg and Chan Had Already Signed the Giving Pledge in 2010, a Promise to Give at Least Half
The Giving Pledge, launched in 2010 by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, asks billionaires to commit at least half their wealth to charity. Zuckerberg and Chan joined that year and were among the youngest signers, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Their 2015 promise went far past that baseline and echoed Buffett’s 2006 vow to donate Berkshire Hathaway stock then worth about $43.6 billion. The structure they chose looked very different from his.
Couple Routes Its Giving Through an LLC Instead of a Traditional Foundation
Buffett sent his shares to five foundations. Zuckerberg and Chan created the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability company. According to Fortune, that setup gives them flexibility over timing and causes and lets them invest in for-profit companies and fund policy advocacy. A 2015 SEC filing capped Zuckerberg’s sales or gifts of Facebook stock at $1 billion a year for three years. The causes the company funds today differ sharply from its launch agenda.
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Cut About 70 Jobs as Its Focus Narrowed to AI-Driven Disease Research
The initiative began with a broad agenda that included housing in California and criminal justice reform. It narrowed to science in 2024, and a November 2025 post from the couple said they were going “all in on AI-powered biology.” In early 2026 it cut about 70 jobs to focus on Biohub, a research network aiming to cure or prevent all disease, Fortune reported. This fall, a California ballot measure put the couple’s fortune under different scrutiny.
Zuckerberg Weighed Leaving California Over a Billionaire Tax That Voters Have Now Rejected
Proposition 40 proposed a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of California billionaires. According to Fortune, Zuckerberg told Meta’s board he was weighing a move out of the state, and the company created a new class of stock he could sell to cover a potential bill. The Associated Press reported that voters rejected the measure, with the result declared nearly a week after the Nov. 3 election. The pledge itself sets one timeline: the couple’s lifetimes.
Zuckerberg Still Holds About 13% of Meta and Majority Voting Control
Zuckerberg still holds roughly 13% of Meta, a stake that gives him majority voting control of the company, Fortune reports. He has also assembled one of the largest real estate portfolios of any American billionaire, including a recent purchase in Miami. Fortune notes the pledge does not demand a frugal lifestyle. It covers shares the couple choose to give over their lifetimes. Inside the family home, the three girls live under rules that seem at odds with that wealth.
Max, 10, Is Vibe Coding at Home, and Her Mother Has Already Turned Down One Idea
Zuckerberg told CBS Mornings that “we don’t give them everything,” and that the girls have chores. Max, the child who inspired the pledge, is now vibe coding, a way of building software by describing it to AI. She pitched a dating site, and her mother told Colossus, “That was a no.” Chan limits what Max can put online. The share of the fortune that will reach the girls comes down to simple arithmetic.
One Percent of a $200 Billion Fortune Still Comes to $2 Billion
Applied to a fortune of $200 billion, the 1% left over would equal $2 billion, a sum that places the daughters among the very wealthy even under the pledge. That figure is an illustration. The pledge covers Facebook and Meta shares, and the couple’s other assets and cash sit outside it. Gates has called Zuckerberg an exemplar of giving and said he is “off to a very good start,” according to Fortune.
Pledge Sends 99% of the Shares to Public Causes and Leaves the Daughters the Rest
A letter written for a newborn has become a decade-long financial plan. Zuckerberg and Chan direct their giving through a private company, aim most of it at AI-driven disease research, and keep control of Meta while they do. Fortune places them alongside Gates, Buffett and Bloomberg, households whose children will not inherit the bulk of the family balance sheet. Max and her sisters will receive the 1% the pledge leaves untouched, plus any assets outside the shares.