Mark Zuckerberg sells $95 mn in Facebook stock

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has sold another $95 million in Facebook stock within the past week, in his goal of donating 99 per cent of his Facebook stake to make the world a better place in his lifetime.

The shares were sold by the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation and CZI Holdings LLC, the two entities that Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan created for their philanthropy and public advocacy last year, between 17 and 18 November as per regulatory filings.

The sale comes after the same entities sold $190 million in Facebook stock in October and another $190 million in September. Zuckerberg said he would not sell or give away more than $1 billion in Facebook stock per year through 2018, according to the filing.

Chan and Zuckerberg first announced their plan to donate 99 per cent of their Facebook stake in December 2015. The stake which was then worth about $45 billion, would go to ''philanthropic, public advocacy, and other activities for the public good'' over their lifetime. Some of the funds would go into profit companies that fitted with the couple's goals. Post the sales, according to Forbes, Zuckerberg's net worth stood at $52 billion. Zuckerberg's stake had increased over the past year despite the stock sales due to the rise in Facebook's stock price.

Zuckerberg and Chan last September launched an ambitious project aimed at making the world disease free within their children's lifetime. Biohub, a $3-billion investment project of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, had been working towards this goal.

The intitative's science board comprises experts drawn from Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, and University of California San Francisco, with Rockefeller neuroscientist Dr Cor Bargmann taking the lead.

While the eradication of all known diseases would seem overly ambitious a goal, according to the team, it was achievable considering the advances over the last 100 years.