Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan on Tuesday said they will give 99% of their shares to a new foundation they have set up. Their plan, which was posted on his Facebook page as a letter to their newborn daughter, includes the announcement of a new philanthropic project, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, that will focus on advancing human potential and promoting equality, Reuters reported. Zuckerberg and Chan will jointly control the new venture, and the donation plans amount to $45 billion (nearly Rs 3 lakh crore).

To begin with, the foundation will focus on personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities, Zuckerberg said. While his earlier charitable efforts, in particular his venture called internet.org, have been criticised for being a veiled attempt to build Facebook’s user base, this new venture has left the company out of the operations. Fellow philanthropic billionaire Warren Buffet was among those who commended Zuckerberg for his announcement.