Nike co-founder and chairman emeritus Phil Knight is reported to have donated nearly $1 billion worth of Nike stock to a charity last week.
Bloomberg reports that a regulatory filing noted that Knight and wife Penelope are directors of the unnamed beneficiary.
The 12 million shares donated on Wednesday are worth around $990 million and equate to about 0.7 percent of the company’s outstanding shares and 3.1 percent of Knight’s $32 billion estate as tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world's 500 richest people. Knight is currently 24th on that list.
The Knight family has a philanthropic history, having previously contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to both the University of Oregon and Stanford University.
Bloomberg notes in its report that the Knights' move follows a pattern of "mega-philanthropy" by US billionaires, with Bill Gates having donated $5 billion worth of Microsoft stock to his own foundation, investor Warren Buffet donating $3.4 billion to charity in July, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos pledging $2 billion for preschool programs in poor neighborhoods and food and shelter for the homeless.
In other Nike news, the sportswear giant recently unveiled its Shanghai 001 concept store. Check out the innovative retail location here.
