Billionaires
How Jack Dorsey Spends His Money As he steps down as Twitter’s CEO, here’s a glance at where tech billionaire Jack Dorsey spends his fortune. Twitter’s ex-CEO and cofounder Jack Dorsey had a net worth of $12.9 billion as of November 16, 2021, ranking him 53rd on the Forbes 400 list and 173rd among the world’s wealthiest billionaires in 2021. He remains a board member until May 2022. Dorsey served as CEO from 2006 to 2008 and took the helm in 2015 before giving away almost 33% of his shares to Twitter employees in 2016 and stepping down again on November 29, 2021. His remaining approximately 2% stake in Twitter was worth around $960 million as of November 5, 2021. Here’s a look at how he has been spending some of his money.
The Start Small Initiative: $428.2 million Dorsey pledged to donate $1 billion from his shares in Square Inc., his financial payments company, to the #startsmall initiative, a fund he launched for global COVID-19 relief in April 2020. Since then, the fund disbursed $428.2 million to 246 organizations as of November 16, supporting various causes such as food banks, social justice campaigns, and girls’ education. Donations range F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M
streaming service to rival the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. Tidal, which is available in 61 countries, has since struggled to compete in the music streaming market.
Twitter.com: $7,500
from $6,000 granted to Oakland Art Murmur, an art mural fund, to $20 million granted to a COVID-19 contact tracing initiative. All his donations are visible on a public Google spreadsheet.
San Francisco real estate: $21.9 million Dorsey purchased his neighbor’s house in the exclusive Seacliff neighborhood of San Francisco for a reported $21.9 million in 2018. The cliffside mansion spans 3,588 square feet, includes five bedrooms, and offers panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Ocean. Dorsey
already owns the twobedroom mid-century house next door, which he reportedly bought for nearly $10 million in 2012. The two properties combined cover 1.2 acres of coastal land.
Music streaming service: $297 million Through Square Inc, Dorsey bought Tidal, a music streaming service, for $297 million in March 2021. Following the deal, Dorsey announced his plan to connect Tidal with Square’s personal finance apps Seller and Cash App. Rapper and fellow billionaire Jay-Z acquired the app for $56 million in 2015, intending to create an artist-owned
Alongside Twitter cofounder Evan Williams, Dorsey bought the domain name “Twitter.com” for $7,500 in 2006, according to TechCrunch. The company was valued at $42.3 billion, as of November 15, 2021. The website was previously called “twttr,” a name the three cofounders chose. In March 2021, Dorsey sold his first tweet mentioning the company’s original name, which reads: “just setting up my twttr,” for $2.9 million.
Funding a startup (partly): $7 million One of serial investor Dorsey’s latest investments was in MOLTEN, a cloud software company for the entertainment industry, on October 21, 2021. The Massachusetts-based startup has raised a total of $7 million in two seed rounds since its founding in 2018. Aside from Dorsey, its other notable investors include Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher and former Walt Disney president Michael Ovitz. DECEMBER 2021
BY KHADIJAH MAZEN
LEADERBOARD
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