It’s easy to explain

The Highest-Paid YouTube Stars Of 2020

Jeff Skoll has been funding pandemic preparedness for more than a decade, even longer than Bill Gates. In recent months, he’s increased his philanthropic giving to help combat Covid-19.



Nine years ago, Jeff Skoll’s film company Participant Media partnered with Warner Brothers to put out Contagion, a movie about a global pandemic that started with a virus from a bat. An American businesswoman (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) came home from a trip to China and unknowingly spread a novel, and at times, deadly disease. While many viewed the film as pure science fiction, Skoll had ulterior motives. He hoped the movie would help build support for funding the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and also warn the world about the potential dangers of a global pandemic.



Skoll, 55, became a billionaire just over two decades ago as a result of stock he received as eBay’s first president. He left eBay in 2001 and has since co-produced more than 100 films and TV programs, all with socially relevant themes including the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore, factory farming documentary Food Inc., the miniseries When They See Us and the 2016 Academy Award best picture winner Spotlight, about The Boston Globe’s investigations into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. 



While his impassioned film-making pretty much ground to a halt temporarily with California’s shelter-in-place orders, his 2011 movie&nbsp;Contagion&nbsp;has become the must watch-at-home hit of the pandemic—it’s the number one selling title to date this year, according to Warner Brothers, the distributor. (It won’t disclose the number of times it’s been rented or sold.) In late March, Participant,&nbsp;Contagion&nbsp;screenwriter Scott Z. Burns and director Steven Soderbergh worked with Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne and other cast members to produce public service announcements about washing your hands and staying home.



Beyond backing a movie about a pandemic, Skoll has been funding pandemic preparedness and prevention since 2009 — six years before Bill Gates’ now well known TED talk warning about them &#8212; through the Skoll Global Threats Fund, to which he pledged $100 million. (The other threats: climate change, water scarcity, nuclear weapons and conflict in the Middle East.)



Since the start of this year, Skoll has contributed an additional $200 million to his charitable foundation—$100 million of which was announced in late April and will go toward fighting Covid-19. He put the other $100 million in earlier this year, he tells Forbes, adding that he hadn’t bothered to publicize it. “I don’t see this as a money squirt,” Skoll explains. “This is a resource allocation to an area we know well. And this is an emergency.”



Newly bulked up, the Skoll Foundation promised to quadruple its grantmaking this year to $200 million. New beneficiaries in 2020 include some of the poorest folks in Los Angeles and the contact tracing program being launched across California.“This is the rainy day we’ve all been saving for,” Skoll says of his charitable giving. “If not now, when?” 



He’s been working up to 20 hours a day in his kitchen in Beverly Hills — on a call in early June, he jokes that it’s his “command center,” equipped with a couple of iPads, a MacBook and some bluetooth devices — talking to people around the globe, taking the pulse of the pandemic and searching out individuals, organizations and companies with new ideas. “Just the science, the learnings of the virus — almost every day there’s some revelation that we didn’t know,” says Skoll.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The pandemics research that Skoll started funding through the Skoll Global Threats Fund spun off into a nonprofit called Ending Pandemics in January 2018, with a seed grant from Skoll. “It’s all about early detection and rapid response,” says Ending Pandemics President Dr. Mark Smolinski.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Skoll has been funding pandemic preparedness and prevention since 2009 — six years before Bill Gates’ TED talk warning about them — through the Skoll Global Threats Fund, which he spun off into Ending Pandemics in 2018.</h2>



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Skoll got wind of the novel coronavirus early on, back in December —where it started. “We had colleagues on the ground in Wuhan. We had an idea that a zoonotic disease had jumped to humans,” he says. By January he and his team began to be concerned about countries with trade ties to China — particularly in Africa, where some of the social entrepreneurs that the Skoll Foundation has supported are operating.&nbsp;



In early February, the Skoll Foundation made its first Covid-19 related grant: $3 million to the African Field Epidemiology Network, a group working with the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (the Africa CDC) to help coordinate African countries’ response and to boost surveillance and detection. The Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation donated to the same group around the same time. Beginning with those two grants, says Africa CDC Director Dr. John Nkengasong, “we were able to rally rapid responders to Addis Ababa [for training] and send them to Nigeria and Cameroon. We were able to scale up diagnostics.” Funding from others then followed, including the MasterCard foundation, Germany, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.  



In &nbsp;March&nbsp; it made a grant to the Southern African Center for Infectious Disease Surveillance Foundation (SACIDS) and a similar group in East Africa. One outcome: Mozambique, which had the infrastructure to test for Covid-19 but limited money to buy tests, got the needed funds and ramped up testing four-fold, according to Smolinski.&nbsp;



The Skoll foundation’s next move was to quickly create a fund for both its current and past grantees — mostly social entrepreneurs. Sixty-four organizations were given $50,000 grants. “We figured they would need emergency funding,” Skoll explains.



Though the Skoll Foundation has traditionally supported social entrepreneurs who work in lower income countries, in the past few months it has made some donations closer to home. Because Los Angeles County has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, Skoll reached out to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to offer assistance. In late April, his foundation made a $2 million gift to the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, which is providing cash assistance to families hit hardest by Covid-19. 



Skoll also connected with California Governor Gavin Newsom and his senior advisor on social innovation, Kathleen Kelly Janus. The Skoll Foundation is donating $8 million to support California’s response to Covid-19, starting with $4.1 million for the public awareness campaign around contact tracing, which Janus says “will be really critical to preventing a second wave of Covid-19.”&nbsp;



Smolinski’s team, which had already partnered with Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital to build a crowdsourced symptom reporting tracker called Flu Near You in 2012 to show flu trends in neighborhoods and cities, rolled out Covid Near You in early March. The app lets people anonymously report if they’re feeling healthy or not, with zip code info, as  a way to track current and potential hotspots. 



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Skoll’s Ending Pandemics has partnered with governments and public health authorities in 36 countries — 11 of which have surveillance systems tracking Covid-19 and other infectious diseases.</h2>



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Ending Pandemics has partnered with governments and public health authorities in 36 countries — 11 of which have surveillance systems that Smolinski says are “up to speed.” One is Cambodia, a country of 14 million people, where all four telecom companies support a free mobile app that both receives info about disease and provides information. Calls have gone from 600 a day before the pandemic to 15,000, and the vast majority of the Covid-19 cases in the country were first identified through the hotline, Smolinski says. Cambodia, the country that took in a cruise ship no one else wanted, so far has just 129 cases and no deaths, he adds.



Through the Audacious Project, a philanthropic group with about 30 members launched by TED conference curator Chris Anderson with Jeff Skoll and Richard Branson, Skoll and others are supporting Boston-based Partners in Health, which responded to the Ebola crisis in 2014. The multi-million dollar grant from the Audacious Project enables Partners in Health to share its contact tracing expertise over the coming year with roughly 19 public health departments across the U.S. “We started by helping the state of Massachusetts put together a contact tracing system, and everyone else wanted to know what we were doing,” says Joia Mukherjee, Chief Medical Officer of Partners In Health. “This funding has allowed us to expand our team. What we are hoping is that state and federal money will be forthcoming.” 



Mukherjee applauds Skoll’s approach to philanthropy. “Jeff has always been a systems thinker, and that has been transformative for Partners In Health,” she says.&nbsp;



Skoll also contributed funding to an ambitious global project called the Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology Network — GIDEoN for short —being spearheaded by Columbia University epidemiologist Ian Lipkin, who directs the university’s Center for Infection and Immunity. Lipkin has lined up the equivalent of the National Institutes of Health in 12 countries including India, Brazil and China and together they’ll share information about outbreaks and disease samples. With GIDEoN,&nbsp; Lipkin explains, “we’re trying to upgrade the capacity for detecting infectious agents and toxins, particularly in the developing world.”&nbsp;



While Skoll has been involved in global philanthropy for nearly two decades, he now has an even more personal reason for being involved in the fight against deadly diseases. While working on Ebola in 2014, he contracted a rare tropical disease that took two years to diagnose. He took an 18 month medical leave of absence and is feeling better now.



Despite many challenges, Skoll is an optimist, even about pandemics. Yes, the number of cases will likely increase as U.S. states open back up, he says. But he’s hopeful that a treatment for Covid-19-an existing drug—can work and be scaled up for distribution sometime this summer. “I hope we can get the solutions in place in the next few months. I see a path to it,” he says.



As for future pandemics, Skoll sees a silver lining.  “There are so many zoonotic viruses that jump over from animals to humans. Most of them peter out and turn into something less lethal. I don’t think it’s likely that we’ll see any terrible new pandemic any time soon, says Skoll.  “If anything, the world is on watch now.”



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/">Kerry A. Dolan</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

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How The Billionaire Behind The Movie ‘Contagion’ Is Working To Stop This Pandemic—And The Next One

Elon Musk&#8217;s meteoric rise up the Forbes Billionaire List has continued this month, as he’s ascended past luminaries such as Warren Buffett and Steve Ballmer. As of Monday afternoon, Musk&#8217;s net worth surpassed <a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#11a0831e3d78">$74 billion</a>, meaning he is now the fifth-richest person on the planet.



KEY FACTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Musk, 49, is the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, the electric vehicle company whose stock price has soared since March.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Tesla shares gained another 9.5% in Monday&#8217;s trading to $1,643.00, giving it a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/20/cramer-says-moves-in-tech-stocks-are-truly-insane-as-amazon-and-tesla-climb.html" target="_blank">60%</a> rise in just three weeks since June 29, and a nearly 300% increase in 2020 alone.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Tesla is now not only the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/01/tesla-is-now-the-worlds-most-valuable-car-company-with-a-valuation-of-208-billion/#64a2c1d05334">world&#8217;s most valuable car company</a>, with a market cap of $304.5 billion, it’s worth more than Ford, Ferrari, General Motors and BMW <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/01/tesla-is-now-the-worlds-most-valuable-car-company-with-a-valuation-of-208-billion/#64a2c1d05334">combined</a>.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Musk was ranked <a href="https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/"> No. 31</a> on Forbes&#8217; Billionaires List as recently as mid-March, with a net worth just under $25 billion.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>His fortune has nearly tripled since then, skyrocketing to $74.2 billion at the close of trading Monday, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#11a0831e3d78">Forbes calculates.</a></li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Musk owns 21% of Tesla but has pledged more than half his stake as collateral for loans; Forbes has discounted his stake to take the loans into account.</li></ul>



KEY BACKGROUND: 



Musk first debuted on Forbes’ 400 Wealthiest Americans List in 2012 in 190th place with a net worth of $2.4 billion. On January 1 this year, he was the 37th richest person on earth. However, Tesla&#8217;s sudden and spectacular rise has propelled him near the very top of the world&#8217;s wealthiest humans. Tesla&#8217;s surge has confounded some investors, considering it’s far smaller than its competitors and only recently began to log quarterly profits. Tesla produced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/01/tesla-is-now-the-worlds-most-valuable-car-company-with-a-valuation-of-208-billion/#64a2c1d05334">103,000 vehicles</a>&nbsp;in the first quarter; Toyota produced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/01/tesla-is-now-the-worlds-most-valuable-car-company-with-a-valuation-of-208-billion/#64a2c1d05334">2.4 million vehicles</a>&nbsp;during that same period. In 2019, American automakers General Motors and Ford generated&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danrunkevicius/2020/07/20/tesla-stock-may-be-rallying-for-this-absurd-reasonand-this-wont-end-well/#794f313f67a6">ten times</a>&nbsp;more sales than Tesla. Late last month, analysts from Morgan Stanley warned that Tesla stock, which was trading at roughly $1,000 per share at that time, was &#8220;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/06/23/tesla-is-overvalued-investors-are-treating-it-too-much-like-a-tech-company-says-morgan-stanley/#15e075f96c74">grossly overvalued</a>&nbsp;and set to plunge.&#8221; Earlier this month, Musk said that Tesla would produce virtually fully autonomous&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/07/09/elon-musk-tesla-will-have-level-5-self-driving-cars-this-year/#1942918a2d1d">self-driving vehicles</a>&nbsp;by the end of 2020, a claim that was met with skepticism by an auto industry accustomed to a heaping of hype from Musk on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/business/tesla-autopilot-germany.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">capabilities of self-driving technology</a>. Musk has not sold shares of Tesla&nbsp;<a href="http://sites/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">since 2010</a>.



CRITICAL QUOTES:



&#8220;I really couldn&#8217;t care less,&#8221; Musk emailed Forbes about his net worth earlier this month. &#8220;These numbers rise and fall, but what really matters is making great products that people love.&#8221;



&#8220;Moves like we are seeing in Microsoft and Tesla and Amazon are truly insane and unlike any i have ever seen in my life,&#8221;&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jimcramer/status/1285293615019888640?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;analyst Jim Cramer on Monday afternoon. When asked if Tesla was a &#8216;Covid Stock,&#8217; Cramer&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jimcramer/status/1285310934114861057?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">replied</a>, &#8220;i don&#8217;t even know if it is a stock. it is something else entirely, like a new species discovered in the wild.&#8221;&nbsp;



TANGENT:



When Kanye West<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2020/07/08/kanye-west-says-hes-done-with-trump-opens-up-about-white-house-bid-damaging-biden-and-everything-in-between/#4597b0a647aa"> initially announced</a> that he was running for president, he said he had the &#8220;full support&#8221; of Musk, a longtime close friend. In a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pagesix.com/2020/07/11/elon-musk-backpedals-on-support-of-kanye-wests-presidential-bid/" target="_blank">since-deleted tweet</a>, Musk responded, &#8220;We may have more differences of opinion than I anticipated.&#8221; However, Musk later told <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pagesix.com/2020/07/13/elon-musk-on-why-hes-still-backing-kanye-west-for-president/" target="_blank">Page Six</a>, &#8220;Kanye explained afterward some of the reasoning behind why he said what he said. It makes more sense than many people, including me, realized.&#8221; On July Fourth, Musk <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pagesix.com/2020/07/13/elon-musk-on-why-hes-still-backing-kanye-west-for-president/" target="_blank">tweeted</a>, &#8220;You have my full support!&#8221;



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/">Tommy Beer</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

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Elon Musk Is Now The Fifth Richest Person In The World

From pig-manure power to wind farms, Virginia’s Dominion Energy is transforming itself into a renewable energy powerhouse—and Berkshire Hathaway’s cash will only accelerate the process. 



“Pigs are extremely efficient,” says Kraig Westerbeek, who oversees renewable energy production for Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork producer. For what farmers put into them, they get a lot out. “They eat 2.4 pounds of feed per pound of gain,” he says. “And they produce more gas per pound of live weight.”



Westerbeek is talking about greenhouse gases emitted by the millions of pigs his industrial farms produce each year. Inside his giant barns, manure and urine ooze through holes in a concrete floor before getting piped to open-air ponds called lagoons—some the size of four football fields. In these lakes of livestock waste naturally occurring bacteria—called methanogens—continue to feed and fart out more gas. All this methane ends up in the atmosphere, and that is bad news for the planet. Pound for pound, methane packs 25 times the greenhouse effect as the standard environmental villain, carbon dioxide. To make matters worse, it’s long been standard practice for farmers to spray the odoriferous lagoon waste on croplands as rich fertilizer—subjecting Smithfield and its former hog-producing subsidiary, Murphy-Brown, to environmental litigation and scathing publicity as local communities cope with the stench and health risks.



But today, Westerbeek has a better story to tell. In recent years Smithfield has been working to perfect methods of capping lagoons with heavy plastic covers that trap the methane (and much of the reek). The gas inflates the plastic domes in amounts sufficient for people to walk on—like an extremely gross air mattress. Smithfield has partnered with Richmond, Virginia-based utility giant Dominion Energy to market the gas. Under the plan, Dominion will siphon the pig gas out of these anaerobic digesters, inject it into interstate pipelines and sell it to green-minded customers looking to cut their carbon footprints. The end result is arguably the cleanest electricity in the nation, says Dominion Chief Operating Officer Diane Leopold. “It’s a win-win-win.” With renewable energy projects, she says, “it’s about how many boxes you can check. This one has an extra box.”



Over the next decade, Dominion aims to invest $650 million into agriculture-derived gas projects. Smithfield will contribute another $250 million. The expected result: 8 billion cubic feet per year of livestock gas—thus preventing the emissions equivalent of 3.5 million tons per year of carbon dioxide. That’s like taking 750,000 cars permanently off the road, or planting 60 million new trees every year. It may sound gimmicky, but replacing just 12% of fossil fuel gas with methane captured from pigs, dairy cows or landfills “can make everything net zero” on an emissions basis, says Leopold.



Helping to underwrite those investments will be the $10 billion ($4 billion cash; $6 billion assumed debt) that Berkshire Hathaway&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2020/07/06/berkshire-hathaway-dominion-energy-natural-gas-pipeline/#204094d3481c">said Monday</a>&nbsp;it will pay for Dominion’s 7,700 miles of long-haul gas pipelines. Dominion had to sell its pipelines to fund investment into renewables, says Hugh Wynne at SSR. And that gave Warren Buffett the opportunity to double down on Berkshire’s pipeline holdings, at a good price. “Buffett is taking advantage of their situation,” says Wynne.



For Buffett, the deal complements Berkshire Hathaway’s existing 16,000-mile pipeline network, thus supporting his bet that natural gas will put the final bullet into coal and be a mainstay of U.S. power generation for decades to come. Berkshire already owns massive wind farms that generate 6,600 megawatts across the West—so it is also knee-deep in renewable energy. And Berkshire’s money will do double environmental duty, as Dominion will use some of the cash to help build its green future. All told, Dominion expects to make some $55 billion of investments by 2035 into low-carbon energy sources—spurred on by Virginia’s aggressive new mandate for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045.



What a departure this is from the old Dominion Energy. The utility was founded as Virginia Railway &amp; Power Co. in 1909 by Frank Jay Gould, son of robber baron Jay Gould. Its roots are firmly planted in Appalachian coal. Even as late as 1995, when its current CEO Tom Farrell came on board as general counsel, more than half of its power came from burning coal.



Over the past 15 years, Dominion has slashed its carbon dioxide emissions by 52%, first by replacing coal-fired power plants with cheap and plentiful natural gas, and more recently by investing in solar and other renewables. In a decade the carbon intensity of Dominion’s power generation has fallen from more than 1,200 lbs. of CO2 per megawatt-hour to less than 600 pounds. This is in the lowest quartile of American electric utilities, according to consultancy MJ Bradley Group.



A big contributing factor: the changing economics of renewable power. “Solar was not affordable; five years ago we didn’t have a single panel,” Farrell says. Now Dominion, which had profits of $1.4 billion on revenues of $16.5 billion in 2019 (and whose dividend yields 5%), is the fourth-largest solar operator in the country.



Dominion is far from alone in its rush into renewables. Since 2003—when coal provided 51% of America’s electricity—the nation’s power utilities have dramatically cut back their combustion of coal in favor of renewables and cleaner-burning natural gas. Currently, coal fuels just 17% of electricity, and renewables have surpassed it for the first time ever. This trend is just getting started. With its new 2045 mandate for zero-carbon electricity, Virginia joins California, New Mexico, New York, Washington and Hawaii.



After $40 million in R&amp;D write-offs they settled on perfecting the systems being deployed today, whereby each farm’s manure lagoons have been turned into anaerobic digesters that capture its gas and sends it via pipeline to a centralized processing plant. After about three weeks in the digester, what’s left of the manure comes out the other end as sterile, nutrient-rich organic matter used as fertilizer or even livestock bedding. The now less odoriferous water is sprayed on crop fields. The Dominion/Smithfield joint venture will deploy systems at hog operations in North Carolina, Virginia and Utah.



Dominion is also working with startup Vanguard Renewables, which deploys similar systems at dairy farms. Vanguard is backed by the foundation of eBay billionaire Jeff Skoll, among others. It already has 42 diary farms signed up. Vanguard’s president, Kevin Chase, says that even though so-called dairy digesters had been perfected in heavily subsidized Europe over the past decade, owners of natural gas pipelines were initially skeptical at letting in bovine gas. “It was guilty until proven innocent,” says Chase, whose Wellesley, Massachusetts-based company has since landed long-term contracts with Vermont Gas, Middlebury College and Polar Beverages.



Though plenty of municipal sewage systems utilize similar digesters to process human waste, these aren’t as cost-effective because of the plethora of other stuff people put down the drain. “Animal waste is cleaner and more homogenous,” says Chase, because we know that the hogs and cows are eating and what’s coming out. A solution for chicken waste remains an elusive “Holy Grail” because its high ammonia content makes it extremely caustic and tough to process.



Renewable fuels are a priority at the EPA. To ensure that refineries and utilities use the mandated volumes of green fuels, the EPA requires that they either generate or trade for compliance credits (called Renewable Identification Numbers). Thanks to its negative-carbon attributes, livestock gas qualifies for the highest-value credits—meaning that customers could pay Dominion ten times more for hog gas than for the same quantity of gas fracked out of shale formations. That could be enough to generate an additional $100 million a year in revenue.



Not everyone is impressed by the potential for renewable natural gas. “Putting it into a pipeline is better than letting it go loose,” says William McDonough, visionary architect and author of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://mcdonough.com/cradle-to-cradle/" target="_blank">Cradle To Cradle</a>, about the need for a circular carbon economy. “But it’s still a fugitive carbon. To say it’s the cleanest energy is not correct, if you’re considering climate change.”



McDonough favors using ever-cheaper solar and wind power to electrolyze water into hydrogen. “Green hydrogen” and other climate-friendly efforts are already in the works at Dominion. COO Leopold says they’ve successfully blended 10% hydrogen into their gas-fired power plants; “It’s expensive at the moment, but solar was expensive, too.”



In the years ahead, Dominion could well become Virginia’s biggest private landowner due to all the solar panels it expects to install. And it’s begun replacing diesel-powered school buses with electric ones statewide. Offshore in the Atlantic Ocean, Dominion this summer has installed the first two of what could be hundreds of 800-feet-tall offshore wind turbines generating 2,600 megawatts.  (Reflecting its renewable energy efforts, Dominion has been named to Forbes’ annual <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2019/11/12/inside-the-2020-just-100-how-we-rank-americas-best-corporate-actors/#6e3a06d55bc4">Just 100 list</a> of socially responsible companies.)



Even after Dominion has transitioned from nearly all-coal to zero-carbon in a generation, it will still be looking for the next best thing. Maybe nuclear fusion? “I don’t doubt it,” says Farrell. “A sustainable company is one that adapts to challenges and weathers the storm.”



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/">Christopher Helman</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/energy">Energy</a>

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How Buffett’s $10 Billion Pipeline Deal Is Doing Environmental Double Duty Helping Dominion Energy Turn Acres Of Manure Into Clean Power

The world is awash in streaming services, and Meg Whitman already had her fortune — but then Jeffrey Katzenberg came calling with a mobile-focused startup. With nearly $1.8 billion raised and America on lockdown, consumers may have no choice but to try Quibi.



Minutes after Meg Whitman announced she was stepping down as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in November 2017, her phone rang. It was Jeffrey Katzenberg, whom she has known since they both worked for Disney in the late 1980s and early 1990s — Whitman was in strategic planning; Katzenberg ran the film studio.&nbsp; ‘What are you doing?’ ” Whitman remembers her friend asking. “I don’t know,” she replied.



“I’m the chairman of Teach for America. I’ll probably do stuff with my husband and travel.” She continues: “He goes, ‘No. What are you doing tonight?’ And I said, ‘Knowing you, Jeffrey, I’m having dinner with you.’ ”



Katzenberg flew to Silicon Valley and, over dinner at Nobu in Palo Alto, pitched his idea for bringing high-caliber entertainment to mobile phones. For Whitman, the idea checked all her boxes: The potential market for the service was huge, prevailing trends were right and it occupied a unique niche.



“I ultimately said, ‘You know what? I think I have another startup in me,’ ” says Whitman, 63, who first got rich (she’s worth $3.3 billion) working with another visionary founder, Pierre Omidyar. She helped build eBay from 30 employees and $4 million in revenue when she joined in 1998 to more than 15,000 employees and $8 billion in revenue when she left a decade later.



“We’re pioneering into a space that only exists because of two things: YouTube, and Steve Jobs and the iPhone,” Katzenberg says. “Those two things have now created a new piece of real estate, and that real estate is 7 in the morning until 7 at night… That’s the thing that’s exciting to me.”



Two years after that dinner, Quibi (an awkward portmanteau of quick and bites) is poised to launch its mobile streaming service offering original movies, reality TV, comedies and news edited into bite sized nuggets of 10 minutes or less, optimized for viewing on phones.



Many in Hollywood think it’s a terrible idea. At a time when viewers are awash in entertainment options, many of them free, who is going to pay for another? “If I’m going to watch Game of Thrones in eight-minute chunks, what’s the difference between what he’s doing and me hitting the pause button?” scoffs one powerful Hollywood insider, who requested anonymity because his clients sell shows to Quibi. Barry Diller, perhaps the greatest Hollywood visionary of his generation, recently called Quibi a “gutsy speculation” for his former protégé (Katzenberg, 69, worked for Diller at Paramount in the ’70s). “He’s so naked out there with this.”



It’s not a new idea. Back in 1999, Katzenberg tried something similar with Pop.com, which was supposed to deliver short animated and live-action films across the internet. With the technology for viable video streaming still in its infancy, it was an uncertain notion at best. Despite being backed by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Paul Allen, Pop.com was dead within a year.



This time around, Katzenberg raised enough money to play it out, including $1 billion in August 2018 from the likes of Alibaba, Disney and Sony. It fortuitously wrapped up a $750 million follow-on round in March, just days before the coronavirus froze the country. “I’ve never seen an environment change this fast,” Whitman says. “Every day is a new day, with new data and new concerns.” Luckily, Kevin Hart and Jennifer Lopez already finished work on their shows, and Spielberg has a movie in the works, attracted by a “cash plus” deal that lets them retain rights to their material. After two years, they can stitch together their “quick bites” and release them as a full-length movie.



Inadvertently, America’s lockdown might have created the perfect moment for Quibi. Nielsen projects media viewing will spike by as much as 60% due to COVID-19. People will certainly know it’s available: Quibi is spending a gargantuan $400 million to promote its new service and in mid-March announced that it will offer the service free for three months.



“This is a moment in time in which we have a chance to do something that is putting some happiness and some joy and some fun and some laughter into people’s hands,” Katzenberg says.



Quibi also has the advantage of being loaded with fresh content just as the production of all new shows and movies has been stilled by the pandemic. Quibi has been stockpiling programming since last September in anticipation of a possible writer’s strike, fearing a replay of 2008, when a union walkout halted new production for 100 days.



The service debuts on April 6 with 50 original shows, including movies offered in cliff-hanger chapters such as the thriller Survive, starring Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) and Corey Hawkins (BlacKkKlansman); 120 reality shows and documentaries; plus news, weather and sports. In all, Quibi promises to deliver 8,500 quick bites from 175 shows in its first year.



But the $1.8 billion question remains: Will anyone pay to watch them? Some Hollywood players are adopting a “DBA Jeffrey” — Don’t Bet Against Jeffrey — attitude.



“Jeffrey has only taken a couple of big swings in his life, and he’s hit it out of the park,” says a senior executive at one of Hollywood’s major talent agencies. “If you had blindly bet on Jeffrey Katzenberg for the past 30 years, you’d have made a lot of money.”



&#8211; Dawn Chmielewski

Young Chinese colleagues working together in a busy co-working space from above

The Billionaire’s Startup

It’s not just Amazon stock that has boosted the fortunes of its billionaire backer. Dramatic changes in the share prices of Tesla, Reliance and Microsoft have reshuffled the ranks of the top ten richest in the world since March.



 Between last Friday afternoon after markets closed and 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jeff Bezos’ net worth fell by $8 billion. That’s a huge sum — the combined value of the NFL’s New England Patriots ($4.1 billion) and the New York Giants ($3.9 billion). But for Bezos, who’s worth about $181 billion, it was just a routine couple of days on the job —and a 4.4% decline in his fortune.



Since March 18, the date that Forbes used to calculate net worths for the 2020 World’s Billionaires list, and days after the President declared a national emergency due to the coronavirus, Amazon’s stock price has soared nearly 69%. As shoppers who sheltered at home during the pandemic turned to Amazon for ordering more purchases, its market cap reached a record $1.5 trillion, and Bezos’ fortune jumped $68 billion. Even with the slight downtick in the last two days, investors aren’t worried – mostly chalking it up to portfolio rebalancing, or momentum stocks retreating a bit after a strong run.



Bezos is not the only billionaire to get much richer during the pandemic. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has gone from No. 31 wealthiest in the world in mid-March to No. 9 as of Tuesday. His net worth has nearly tripled in the last four months, to $69.1 billion from $24.6 billion, largely due to a massive 320% rally in Tesla’s stock. It’s the first time Musk ranks among the world’s top ten richest. “I really couldn’t care less,” Musk told Forbes in early July, commenting on the size of his fortune. “Those numbers rise and fall, but what really matters is making great products that people love.”



Another big gainer of the past several months is Mukesh Ambani, an Indian business magnate and chairman of Reliance Industries, whose telecom firm Reliance Jio has attracted billions of dollars in investments in 2020, including $5.7 billion from Facebook in April and $1.2 billion from U.A.E.’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala in June. On July 15 Google confirmed it would invest $4.5 billion in Jio. That, in turn, has helped lead to a surge in the share price of Reliance. Ambani is now the seventh richest person in the world, worth $71.4 billion, nearly twice his net worth in mid-March. The last time Ambani was in the top 10 was in 2011, with a $27 billion fortune.



Also new to the top ten since March: Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft. Microsoft stock is up a striking 47% since mid March, landing Ballmer at the world’s No. 6 richest, worth $72.1 billion.



Whiplash 2020: Shakeup Among Top 10



Musk and Ballmer join the ​upper echelon, while Buffett falls to his lowest rank in at least 20 years.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/billionaires.png" alt="" class="wp-image-46513" width="686" height="664" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/billionaires.png 592w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/billionaires-300x290.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 686px) 100vw, 686px" /></figure>



Of course, as some climb up the ranks, others must go down – and some go up and down a lot. Bernard Arnault was worth $108 billion in late January. He fell to $76 billion in mid March, as people worried about spending on luxury goods. He is back up to $111.1 billion, and number three in the world.



Despite only a $3.5 billion drop in his net worth since March, Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors of all time, is down four spots and now the eighth richest person in the world. It’s the lowest Buffett has ranked in at least 20 years. The Waltons, the family behind Walmart, had three members – Jim Walton, Alice Walton and Rob Walton – who rounded out the top ten in mid-March. While their net worths on Tuesday were actually up $3 billion, those increases were not enough for them to hold onto their spots as others including Musk, Ambani and Ballmer surged ahead.



The only certainty with markets like this is that billions can be gained – and lost – and regained in a matter of hours.



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/">Angel Au-Yeung</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

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Why Jeff Bezos Lost $8 Billion In The Last 2 Days – And Why That’s Not A Big Deal

Tesla vehicles could soon be completely autonomous as CEO Elon Musk said the electric vehicle firm is “very close” to achieving level 5 autonomous driving technology, during a virtual appearance at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.



KEY FACTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>“I’m extremely confident that level 5 or essentially complete autonomy will happen and I think will happen very quickly,” Musk said.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>He added that he is confident “basic functionality” for level 5 complete autonomy will be achieved this year.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The technology will allow vehicles to drive on roads without driver input.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Tesla, the world’s highest-valued carmaker after overtaking Toyota last week, already <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilot" target="_blank">operates</a> an Autopilot system that uses external cameras, radars and sensors, but it is driver assisted and does not make the vehicle autonomous.</li></ul>



KEY BACKGROUND



Tech firms, including Uber and Alphabet-owned Waymo, have pumped billions into developing self-driving cars, a futuristic idea that many had predicted would be ready by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/14/21063487/self-driving-cars-autonomous-vehicles-waymo-cruise-uber" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this year</a>. But limitations around AI have stalled development of the technology. Last month, Waymo and Volvo announced they were teaming up to develop driverless cars for ride-hailing use.



TANGENT



In February, the National Transportation Safety Board&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/business/tesla-autopilot-ntsb.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a>&nbsp;Tesla&#8217;s autopilot driver assistance was likely to blame for a fatal 2018 crash in California, leading to the board calling for more regulation of the technology, and for the company to better educate drivers on its limitations.



ADDITIONAL INFO



The road to completely autonomous driving has five levels: Level 0 describes no automation i.e. everyday cars. Level 1 represents features such as adaptive cruise control, while level 2 describes partial automation features that control speed and steering, such as those seen in Tesla vehicles. Level 3 and 4 represent limited driverless capabilities. Level 5 is the point at which a driverless vehicle can navigate all road conditions without human input, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://the5levelsofautonomousvehicles/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">True Car</a>.

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Tesla Vehicles Could Soon Become Completely Autonomous As Self-Driving Tech ‘Very Close’, Elon Musk Says

After years of hints, Kanye West formally announced he is running for president this year in a challenge to Trump, who he once supported, and Democratic rival Joe Biden, winning support from his friend and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.



KEY FACTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Rounding off his Fourth of July, West <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1279575273365594112?s=20" target="_blank">tweeted</a> on Saturday night: “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION.”</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Musk<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1279577069005897728?s=20" target="_blank"> tweeted</a> in response: “You have my full support!”</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Wife Kim Kardashian also publicly pledged her support, retweeting West’s statement and adding a U.S. flag <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/1279597399380332544?s=20" target="_blank">emoji</a>.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>West’s announcement follows years of hints that he would run for office this year which he later postponed to 2024, after publicly declaring at a Fast Company event in 2019: “When I run for president in 2024&#8230;We would create so many jobs! I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk.”</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>But the rapper, who recently <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2020/06/28/kanye-west-gives-gap-a-ten-year-lifeline-with-yeezy-partnership-and-gets-what-he-always-wanted/#3db3d12e3dde">inked</a> a 10-year deal with Gap through his Yeezy brand, is reportedly yet to file any paperwork to get on state election ballots, while he has missed the deadline for states including Texas, New York, and Indiana.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>It is not known how serious West’s intentions are this time around, however, he still has time to <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://ballotpedia.org/Important_dates_in_the_2020_presidential_race" target="_blank">file</a> as an independent candidate across most states, according to Ballotpedia.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>West’s declaration was met with skepticism on social media, while some commentators pointed out that it could work out in Trump’s favour.</li></ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Kanye West went from endorsing Trump to claiming he’d run against him —an announcement that benefits the president to the degree it spotlights Biden’s need for black voters &amp; his potential weakness with young voters <a href="https://t.co/0m4PUO6s6a">https://t.co/0m4PUO6s6a</a>&mdash; Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcACaputo/status/1279589464491376642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Kanye West isn’t really gonna run for President, but his next album will be called Presidential Dropout&mdash; David Gardner (@byDavidGardner) <a href="https://twitter.com/byDavidGardner/status/1279585706432659457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



KEY BACKGROUND



West’s declaration suggests the rapper is looking to cement political ambitions he has expressed throughout Trump’s presidency. West previously forged alliances with Trump, and was pictured in the Oval Office in 2018 wearing a signature Trump ‘Make America Great Again’ cap. He once called the president his “brother” and previously hit back at criticism towards his support for Trump, likening the backlash to racial discrimination. Although he says he didn’t vote in 2016, West later said he “would have voted for Trump”, and earlier this year doubled down, suggesting he would vote for him in November. But that could very well change given Saturday’s announcement.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="456" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1059657306-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46417" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1059657306-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gettyimages-1059657306-594x594-1-300x230.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>American rapper and producer Kanye West embraces real estate developer and US President Donald Trump in the White House&#8217;s Oval Office, Washington DC, October 11, 2018. West wears a red baseball cap that reads &#8216;Make America Great Again,&#8217; Trump&#8217;s campaign slogan. (Photo by Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



TANGENT



West and Musk were <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1278353774671802369?s=20" target="_blank">pictured together</a> on July 1st, with West tweeting: “When you go to your boys [sic] house and you’re both wearing orange.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1278353774671802369?s=20
</div></figure>



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/">Isabel Togoh</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

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Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian Endorse Kanye West Running For President

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;We have grown past the stage of fairy-tale. As women, we have one common front and that is to succeed. We have to take the bull by the horn and make the change happen by ourselves.<cite>&#8211; Folorunso Alakija, Billionaire Businesswoman</cite></blockquote>

Quote 2

Quote Of The Day

One of the most powerful women in the world is teaming up with one of the richest women in the world—Melinda Gates and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mackenzie-bezos/#efc49bc12948">MacKenzie Bezos</a>, respectively—to host a competition with one goal in mind: gender equality.



Gates and Bezos announced the competition, called the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge, through Pivotal Ventures, Gates’ investment and incubation company. The challenge will be managed by Lever For Change, a MacArthur Foundation affiliate, and will grant $30 million to the organizations (or the coalitions of organizations) with the best ideas for helping to expand women’s power and influence in the United States by 2030.



“Closing the gap on gender equality will benefit everyone. History keeps teaching us that when a diversity of voices is represented in decisions, the outcome is better for all,” MacKenzie Bezos said in a statement Tuesday. “I’m excited that the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge will focus energy and innovation on this vital catalyst for positive change.” 



“The entrenched inequalities that divide America—race, gender, class—will not go away without systems-wide change,” added Melinda Gates in a statement of her own. “This challenge is seeking bold ideas to dismantle the status quo and expand power and influence for women of all backgrounds.”&nbsp;



While Melinda Gates has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2015/11/23/the-first-woman-of-women-how-melinda-gates-became-the-worlds-most-powerful-advocate-for-women-and-girls/#7eae6d1a4414">long been an outspoken advocate</a> for women’s health and gender equality, Bezos has been quieter with her philanthropy and influence. Since finalizing her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos last year, Bezos has indicated her philanthropic intentions by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2019/05/28/mackenzie-bezos-will-donate-half-her-fortune-to-giving-pledge/#e8b7ffc31d89">signing the Giving Pledge</a> (thereby committing at least half of her now-$51 billion fortune to charity) and joining the board of Blue Meridian, an organization dedicated to helping children and families in poverty. Her contribution to the Equality Can’t Wait initiative marks her biggest public gift to date.



A spokesperson for Lever for Change said that the competition had been in the works for the past six months, and that the timing of its announcement—just weeks after massive protests against systemic racial inequities started spreading across the nation—is not meant to be a reaction to the current reality, but a continuation of serious conversations.



Broadly, the challenge will look for ideas that help dismantle barriers that hold women back (including but not limited to sexual harassment and discrimination, racial inequity, and inadequate federal policies around caregiving); fast-track female participation in sectors like technology, government and entrepreneurship; and change outdated systems and beliefs around gender. Specifically,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.equalitycantwaitchallenge.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to the challenge’s website</a>, successful proposals should create real, measurable change for women in at least one of the following areas: wages and wealth, unpaid care, share of leadership roles, content creation (in other words, increasing the percentage of cultural and intellectual content created by women), and public perception.



&#8220;When I taught my first course on women in the U.S. economy back in 1985, a female full-time, year-round worker made 65 cents for every dollar earned by a man. In 2018, she earned 82 cents. That’s a raise of less than a penny a year,” noted Cecilia Conrad, the CEO of Lever for Change. She’s hopeful that the Equality Can’t Wait competition will accelerate parity in wages and societal treatment.



To participate in the challenge, organizations must register online by September 1, 2020; fuller applications are due by September 22. Finalists will be announced in early 2021, and winners will be chosen next summer. The $30 million in prize money will be divided among the two most compelling ideas (each will receive a minimum of $10 million) and the remaining finalists.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/">Maggie McGrath</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/forbeswomen">ForbesWomen</a>

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MacKenzie Bezos And Melinda Gates Team Up On $30 Million Gender Equity Contest

Chinese billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/he-xiangjian/#1a7eb7342bfe">He Xiangjian</a>&nbsp;survived an abduction plot this weekend after kidnappers carrying explosives forced entry into his home at Guangdong province.



He Xiangjian, one of the richest men in China with an estimated net worth of $24.8 billion, was rescued on Sunday after his son, 55-year-old He Jianfeng, sneaked out of the family home and swum across a river to raise the alarm, according to local news.



According to a statement posted on Weibo, a Chinese equivalent to Twitter, police responded on Sunday night to a break-in at an 18-hole golf course and sports center owned by He Xiangjian’s Midea Group.



Although police have not named He Xiangjian in their statement, a spokesperson for the local Foshan Public Security Bureau wrote on Weibo, “The victim is safe!” with the police statement attached. Midea Group confirmed the incident on Weibo, and thanked the “media and all sectors of society for their concern.&#8221; 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Who is He Xiangjian?</h2>



Entrepreneur He Xiangjian is the founder of home appliance giant Midea Group, which took shape in 1968 after He led a group of 23&nbsp; residents from Guangdong Province to form a lid production workshop.



Today Midea Group trades on the Shenzhen stock exchange and has more than 200 subsidiaries, including Germany-based robotics firm Kuka. Xiangjian stepped down from its operations in 2012. His son He Jianfeng is now a director of Midea Group and Midea Real Estate Holding.



In January, Midea Group donated products like air conditioners, water heaters and washers and dryers to Wuhan hospitals battling coronavirus.



He Xiangjian is currently the 7th richest billionaire in China, according to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#e0f70223d788">Forbes’ Real Time Rankings</a>.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/">David Dawkins</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

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Chinese Billionaire Held Hostage With Explosives As Son Swims Across Lake To Raise The Alarm

It’s been a busy year for Bill Ackman of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management. Ackman spotted the risks from the coronavirus pandemic early, building a massive credit hedge in January and February that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2020/03/25/billionaire-bill-ackman-100-fold-return-on-coronavirus-hedge-2-billion/#4be334c56fcc">protected his hedge fund</a>&nbsp;from the market plunge. Then, he doubled down near the market lows and is up 30%-plus for the year, compounding Pershing Square’s 58% gain in 2019. Now, the hedge fund billionaire is looking for his next signature deal.



Ackman is planning to raise up to $1 billion using a publicly traded blank-check company, which will then be used to buy a stake in a business and bring it to public stock markets. The brewing deal,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pershingsquare-investment-exclusive/exclusive-pershing-squares-ackman-eyes-1-billion-plus-blank-check-company-sources-idUSKBN23I1ZD" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first reported by Reuters</a>, would give Ackman the opportunity to make a major new investment. (Pershing Square declined to comment.)



This year, Pershing Square used the March market plunge to rebuild a position in Starbucks and add significantly to holdings like Lowe’s, Howard Hughes and Restaurant Brands. Pershing Square also build a stake in private equity giant Blackstone Group, first <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2020/03/18/the-billionaire-interview-that-tanked-the-stock-market/">reported</a> by Forbes, but then sold quickly, he recently told investors. Typically, when Pershing Square scales a new investment it commits between $500 million and $1 billion to the idea, or about a 5%-to-10% weight.



Blank check companies have become popular in recent years as a way to take private equity and venture capital backed companies public. Notable recent deals include the listings of DraftKings, Virgin Galactic and most recently, hydrogen truck unicorn Nikola Motor Company. These vehicles have attracted big names on Wall Street,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2019/12/10/david-cote-goldman-sachs-leveraged-buyout-vertiv/#12339c7ab058">from Goldman Sachs</a>&nbsp;to Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital and Chamath Palihapitiya of Social Capital and Ackman is no stranger to these deals.



Pershing Square notably formed a blank check company called Justice Holdings and in 2012 bought a large stake in Burger King, taking the restaurant public. The deal, in partnership with private equity giant 3G capital, turned into a massive windfall for Ackman and Pershing Square. Ackman personally owns about $250 million in shares of Burger King’s parent company and it’s been one of Pershing Square’s more successful investments. Pershing Square also invested in Nomad Foods and Platform Specialty Products, which were blank check companies, but didn’t turn out as successful.



The prospective new deal is one to watch.



Private equity firms are sitting on massive portfolios of businesses that may need new capital to manage through the pandemic, and may find appeal in quickly tapping public stock markets. Moreover, Pershing Square’s current portfolio is indexed heavily to restaurants, retailers and hoteliers, but Ackman’s done much less investing in some of the hotter corners of the stock market, like information technology and software. Pershing Square recently built a large position in healthcare software provider Agilent, and Ackman’s long been a fan of Ceridian, a maker of software for payroll.



Ackman’s Pershing Square is enjoying a renaissance after the firm battled through a $4 billion-plus loss on controversial Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The firm refocused on its areas of specialty, succeeding on investments like Nike, Starbucks, Hilton and Chipotle and has seen a major payoff. Last year was the best on record for Pershing Square and his fund is significantly outperforming peers and broader stock markets in 2020. Assets firmwide recently eclipsed $10 billion, about half of their peak, with most housed in a publicly traded permanent capital vehicle called Pershing Square Holdings.



Now, Ackman is raising new capital to hunt for new deals in markets ripe with opportunity.



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/">Antoine Gara</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/banking-insurance">Banking &amp; Insurance</a>

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Billionaire Bill Ackman Plots His Next Deal

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;A vision on its own is not enough. Hard work &amp; dedication is required to make that vision a reality.&#8221;<cite>&#8211; Strive Masiyiwa, Zimbabwean Businessman</cite></blockquote>

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST



Harvard biology professor and serial entrepreneur Timothy Springer saw promise in a fledgling biotech firm a decade ago and made an early investment. Now, primarily as a result of that bet — on a Cambridge, Massachusetts company called Moderna — he’s a billionaire.&nbsp;



Shares of Moderna, which has a Covid-19 vaccine currently in human clinical trials, rose more than 12% this week, bucking the overall drop in the stock market. That surge has turned Springer into a billionaire:&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates he is now worth $1 billion based on his 3.5% equity stake in Moderna and stakes in three smaller biotech outfits.



“My philosophy is investing in what you know, and I’m a scientist at heart. I love discovering things,” Springer, 72, told&nbsp;Forbes. “Many scientists start companies but few are successful. I’m an active investor and also a very rigorous scientist, and that’s why I have a very high batting average.”



On Tuesday, Moderna announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration&nbsp;<a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-receives-fda-fast-track-designation-mrna-vaccine-mrna" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fast-tracked</a>&nbsp;its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, giving a boost to the firm’s effort to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahrosenbaum/2020/05/08/fueled-by-500-million-in-federal-cash-moderna-races-to-make-1-billion-doses-of-an-unproven-cure/">develop</a>&nbsp;the first vaccine for the disease. Moderna was the first company to begin human trials of its vaccine, on March 16 in Seattle, and the company’s shares have nearly tripled in value since the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic on March 11. The breakneck growth had already&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2020/04/03/moderna-ceo-stphane-bancel-becomes-a-billionaire-as-stock-jumps-on-coronavirus-vaccine-news/#4fd68c735bf3">led</a>&nbsp;to one other Moderna billionaire — CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/stephane-bancel/#22bfde4e3742">Stéphane Bancel</a>, now worth an estimated $2.1 billion.&nbsp;



Besides moonlighting as a billionaire biotech investor, Springer is a professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, where he began teaching in 1977 and currently mentors post-doctoral students in his lab. In his&nbsp;<a href="https://timothyspringer.org/people/timothy-springer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a>&nbsp;as an immunologist at Harvard, Springer discovered lymphocyte function-associated molecules, which led to the development of several FDA-approved antibody-based drugs. His first foray into entrepreneurship came in 1993 when he founded the biotech outfit LeukoSite, which he took public in 1998 and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/97cda4b510240fa9f9a6839ecb306558" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sold</a>&nbsp;to Millennium Pharmaceuticals a year later in a deal worth $635 million; Springer got about $100 million of that in Millennium shares.



Springer was a founding investor of Moderna in 2010, when he put about $5 million into the company. Now, a decade later, that initial investment is worth nearly $870 million. But long before Covid-19 had emerged onto the scene, Springer was already thinking about how the company’s groundbreaking mRNA technology could help in the development of vaccines.



“We had the idea very early on that it could be used for pandemic readiness,” says Springer. “That’s why we invested in doing human trials with different influenza types, the types that are not normally seen in epidemics but could emerge and start a new pandemic. We were aware of this kind of scenario all along.”



While Moderna may be Springer’s most high-profile bet, he’s also a leading investor in three smaller publicly traded biotech upstarts: Selecta Biosciences, Scholar Rock and Morphic Therapeutic. In the cases of Scholar Rock and Morphic, Springer is also a cofounder, helping build the companies out of his scientific research at Harvard.



Unfazed by his newfound wealth, Springer still rides his bike to work every day in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he conducts research at his lab. His only luxury, Springer says, is his home. &#8220;I like gardening and collecting rocks&#8230;I don’t need the money. I have an academic lifestyle.&#8221;&nbsp;



He’s also using his fortune to give back to the scientific community: In 2017, he donated $10 million to&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://proteininnovation.org/about" target="_blank">establish</a>&nbsp;the Institute for Protein Innovation, an independent nonprofit dedicated to researching protein science and helping biotech entrepreneurs realize their ideas.



“I like active investing, but I also very much like active philanthropy,” says Springer. “My motivation behind [the Institute] is not only to help develop new reliable antibodies that scientists around the world can use for biological discovery, but also, it has new technology that will just allow many more discoveries to be made. It’s the type of science that is difficult to do otherwise in academia.”



The Harvard professor isn’t the only member of the three-comma-club whose wealth has been boosted by the battle against Covid-19. Some healthcare billionaires’ fortunes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2020/05/04/these-healthcare-billionaires-have-gotten-richer-off-the-coronavirus-pandemic/#b9f98161ba26">have risen</a>&nbsp;by billions of dollars since the WHO declared a global pandemic on March 11. The biotech rally could keep gathering pace as the public eagerly awaits new developments in the fight against Covid-19.



For his part, Springer is optimistic that the biotech sector will continue its rapid growth even once the pandemic is gone. “Before, we were vilified as charging too much for drugs&#8230;but now, everybody is quite aware that biotech is coming to the rescue,” says Springer. “Biotech holds great promise for new drugs, and the faith in biotech is justified.”



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/">Giacomo Tognini</a>, Forbes Staff, Covers Billionaires.

Tag: Billionaires

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