The billionaire leaders of several major global technology companies announced over the weekend their intent to deliver millions of medical supplies to frontline healthcare professionals around the world, Business Insider reports.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted on March 21 that the company is sourcing "millions of masks" to send to healthcare providers in the U.S. and Europe. Vice President Mike Pence reportedly said in a press conference the same day that Apple would donate 2 million masks to the U.S.
- Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post on March 22 that Facebook will donate the 720,000 leftover masks from a stockpile gathered during the California wildfires. The company is also working on sourcing millions more to donate, he wrote.
- Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff posted photos on Twitter on March 22 showing the 9,000 masks the tech company had donated to UCSF Health. "We are working hard across all of our resources & relationships to deliver an additional 5 million masks this week plus additional critical [personal protective equipment]," he added.
- Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, tweeted on March 22 that his company has also begun gathering and delivering PPE for healthcare workers, with the first shipment so far including 15,000 pairs of protective goggles, as well as infrared thermometers, medical caps and protective suits.
- After offering to manufacture ventilators — an offer that was quickly accepted by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk reportedly announced on March 21 that the companies would begin distributing 250,000 masks the following day and that they will have produced "over 1,000 ventilators by next week."