Google's Larry Page Wants To Bequeath His Fortune To One Of His Rich Mates

Google Founder: 'I Will Give My Fortune To Another Billionaire, Not Charity'

Google co-founder Larry Page's bank accounts are swollen to around the tune of $32 billion (£19.4 billion) - but he doesn't appear to be feeling particularly generous. At least not in the way you might expect.

That much money could make some serious headway into solving some of the world's problems - hunger, disease eradication, you name it.

And in that general aim, Page is on board. It's just, he doesn't think the world's biggest charities are the best custodians of that wealth - or necessarily the best way to solve those problems in the first place.

Larry Page

Instead of charities, Page says he wants his fortune to go to one of his also-mega-rich friends -- like Elon Musk.

At a Ted2014 conference last week he said: ""[Musk] wants to go to Mars.

"That’s a worthy goal. We have a lot of employees at Google who’ve become pretty wealthy.

"You’re working because you want to change the world and make it better; if the company you work for is worthy of your time, why not your money as well?"

Page argued that technology and technology companies could act as "agents of change" to help solve the world's problems.

He added: "Most people think corporations are basically evil. They get a bad rap. And that’s somewhat correct, if companies are doing the same incremental things they did 20 years ago.

"But that’s not really what we need. Especially in tech, we need revolutionary change, not incremental change."

Not everyone agrees though. Insider Philanthropy recently demoted him to one of the least generous tech leaders in the world.

They wrote: "If this Google co-founder … has a secret philanthropic life, we'd love to know about it.

"Because right now it looks like he's a big cheerleader for Google's philanthropic and social endeavours, while kicking the can down the road in terms of engaging in his own serious philanthropy."

To be fair to him he does have a few philanthropic qualifications: he sits on the boards of a number of non-profit organisations and invests money in the green energy sector.

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