Multi-Billionaire and Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates has gathered a group of his fellow billionaire friends to create a new generation of clean energy technology.
On Sunday night, Bill Gates announced he is launching the Breakthrough Energy Ventures Fund, which will invest up to $1 billion in clean energy technology.
“Our goal is to build companies that will help deliver the next generation of reliable, affordable, and emissions-free energy to the world,” Gates said.
The mission of the Breakthrough Energy Fund is to invest in different sector in order to provide cleaner energy technological innovations. The money will be divided up and invested in cleaner electricity generation, agriculture and transportation. Gates told reporters that he is open-minded to anything that provides clean energy.
Like a meeting with the world’s top .5 percent, Gates teamed up with a group of investors who are worth upwards of $170 billion. The team includes Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Alibaba CEO Jack Ma.
Laguna Niguel, CA, USA; Tuesday, Oct. 7th, 2014; Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook speaks at the 2014 Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. (Krista Kennell / Shutterstock.com)
The coalition of Silicon Valley’s richest innovators and investors, illustrates how the tech industry is committed to clean energy and the environment. This news comes as President-elect Donald Trump, who recently said that nobody really knows if climate change is real, is set to meet with the tech industry’s biggest movers and shakers.
Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Google’s Larry Page are among the top tech names meeting with Trump’s transition team on Wednesday, which could be extremely interesting considering Trump’s election comments on Silicon Valley.
More specifically, in 2013 Trump called out Sandberg on Twitter for her ’60 Minutes’ interview saying the Facebook Chief Operating Officer should focus more on getting Facebook’s stock price up instead of focusing on her ego. Or, the fact that Trump called his Republican primary opponent Marco Rubio Facebook’s “personal senator”, after the Rubio supported a bill that would allow for an increase in H1-B visas.
Then there was last December when Donald Trump called out Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos ownership ties to the Washington Post to avoid paying taxes taxes, saying :
The @washingtonpost, which loses a fortune, is owned by @JeffBezos for purposes of keeping taxes down at his no profit company, @amazon.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015
The @washingtonpost loses money (a deduction) and gives owner @JeffBezos power to screw public on low taxation of @Amazon! Big tax shelter
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015
If @amazon ever had to pay fair taxes, its stock would crash and it would crumble like a paper bag. The @washingtonpost scam is saving it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015
Donald Trump also targeted Apple. After getting asked about the discussion between Apple and the FBI over the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, Donald Trump called for people to boycott Apple products until the company revealed the San Bernardino shooter’s security number.
How Donald Trump will respond to the billion dollar investment in clean energy via Silicon Valley’s biggest investors and the upcoming meeting with tech titans remains to be seen.