Netflix co-founder and executive chair Reed Hastings has awarded two million shares of the streaming company to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), Variety reports.
According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, on January 24, Hastings disposed of shares worth an estimated $1.1 billion. Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, still own 2.99 million Netflix shares, worth about $1.72 billion, through the Hastings-Quillin family trust.
Although details of how the shares will be used were not available, SVCF has a history of holding large donor-advised funds. Hastings and Quillin, who signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, have long supported educational efforts, including a $120 million commitment in support of scholarships to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in 2020; a $10 million gift in 2022 in support of a partnership between Brown University in Rhode Island and Tougaloo University, a Mississippi-based HBCU; and $20 million to Minerva University in 2023.
Hastings took on the role of executive chair of Netflix after stepping down as CEO in 2023. He has a net worth estimated at $4.1 billion, according to Forbes.
(Photo credit: Flickr/JD Lasica)
