Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has managed to get over 30 billionaires, a lot of whom are from the technology sector,  to agree to sign away over half their wealth to the benefit of the less fortunate.

 

According to the Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett announced yesterday that 40 of the world richest people, including at least 30 billionaires and other wealthy families, have added their names to The Giving Pledge. By doing this, these really well off people make a promise to give away over half their fortunes to charity.

 

The number of names already added thus far is impressive considering that The Giving Pledge was announced less than two months ago and the tech sector is well represented on the list of names.  These include the likes of Paul G. Allen (co-founder of Microsoft), Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle), Jeff Skoll (who was the first president of eBay), Barry Diller (chairman and CEO of IAC which owns Ask.com and Match.com) and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.