The Slatest

Billionaire Paul Allen Will Donate $100 Million to Ebola Battle

Paul Allen in 2007.

Photo by Rick Wilking/Reuters

Paul Allen—the Microsoft co-founder who’s worth about $17 billion, owns the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers, and has a yacht so large it carries two helicopters and a submarine—will give $100 million to organizations battling the Ebola outbreak, he says. Among the intended uses of the money, per the New York Times:

  • A University of Massachusetts Medical School program providing “training, medical workers and lab equipment” to Liberia.
  • The development, in partnership with the State Department, of evacuation and containment units.
  • Funding the World Health Organization’s coordination of medical personnel deployment.
  • Funding the evacuation of infected medical personnel.

Allen has made previous donations to public health causes, including an attemt to develop an Ebola vaccine at Kansas State University. He’s also created a website called TackleEbola that directs small donations to current projects in need of funding.