But the relative newcomer to the world of philanthropy, who has not signed The Giving Pledge, has said both to Bloomberg and in regulatory filings that he will donate the proceeds from his Roblox stock awards to charity.

So far the 59-year-old Baszucki has publicly shifted little of his gaming fortune to charity–his known donations represent just a fraction of his estimated $2.1 billion net worth. The $1.9 billion (revenues) business provides tools for kids to make and sell their own games, and sells a virtual currency, called Robux, that can be spent on games and digital trinkets, like avatars and in-game items.

To millions of tweens, Baszucki is better known as his avatar, “Builderman.” He built Roblox into an addictive combination video game and social-media site that rivals YouTube and TikTok for engaging children. “There’s a chance they will fail, but there’s also a chance they’ll be ten times more impactful than anyone could ever imagine.” “There’s something wonderful about the hard problems,” Baszucki said on Monday. Babis Andreadis, a professor of clinical medicine at UCSF who the Baszuckis announced will head the initiative. Jan Baszucki’s father recovered from a near-fatal lymphoma after undergoing treatment by Dr. Their inspiration again came from personal experience. The Baszuckis also donated $6 million over five years to launch the Baszucki Lymphoma Therapeutics Initiative at UC San Francisco, which supports research to help fight the cancer. The disorder affects some 45 million people globally. In January, the fund partnered with the Milken Institute–a think tank founded by billionaire Michael Milken that hosts the annual conference–to give $9 million in grants to 45 scientists around the world for research grants for bipolar disorder research. The couple’s Baszucki Brain Research Fund invests in technology to prevent and treat bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions. In the U.S., total mental health spending accounts for less than 5.5% of all health spending, per a 2019 report by research firm Open Minds. According to a recent World Health Organization report, governments tend to spend around 2% of their health budgets on mental health.

When roblox was made