Tech billionaire donates $150M to Hawaii hospitals after massive real estate purchases raise alarms
NY Post
Salesforce’s billionaire CEO Marc Benioff announced that he is gifting $150 million to Hawaiian hospitals — one week after locals raised alarms over reports that he has quietly has amassed roughly 600 acres of green landscapes in Waimea, Hawaii.
Of the nine-figure donation, $50 million will be sent to the Hilo Medical Center, while the remaining $100 million will go to nonprofit healthcare organization Hawaii Pacific Health, “to help create a healthcare campus of the future” at Honolulu-based Straub Medical Center, according to a joint press release issued Tuesday.
“We feel fortunate to have been part of the Hawaii community for many decades and to be able to support our ohana in this way,” Benioff and his wife, Lynne, said (“ohana” is a term used by native Hawaiians that means “family”).
The Benioffs added in the press release earlier reported by Gizmodo: “Nothing is more important than the health of our community and access to care for all who need it,”
Nevertheless, as news of the 59-year-old tech mogul’s growing footprint in Hawaii made headlines, locals worry that his string of 38 land purchases could drive housing costs higher and dissolve the community’s culture.
The Tuesday statement noted that the funds will “deepen connections between both Hawaii hospitals and UCSF Health in San Francisco,” the home-base of Salesforce, one of the world’s largest software companies that owns popular business-messaging app Slack.
