SILICON VALLEY, Calif. — Welcome to the world baby Max!
Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday the birth of their baby girl, Max. The announcement comes just over four months after the couple announced that Priscilla was pregnant; an announcement that got shared around the world because of the couple’s frank discussion about their previous miscarriage, a topic not many openly discuss.
The birth announcement, which Mark Zuckberg posted to his Facebook page around 4:10 p.m. ET, was written as a letter to their newborn daughter.
“Dear Max, Your mother and I don’t yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future,” the letter began.
The Zuckbergs went on to discuss how they want Max to “grow up in a world better than ours today.”
But they didn’t only focus on the bad. They wrote about how “in many ways the world is getting better. Health is improving. Poverty is shrinking. Knowledge is growing. People are connecting. Technological progress in every field means your life should be dramatically better than ours today.”
The Zuckerbergs went on to say that they want to do their part to help in progressing the world into a better place not just “because we love you, but also because we have a moral responsibility to all children in the next generation.”
The couple talks about the need for new ways to heal people and cure common diseases, and then goes on to list their hopes for their daughter’s generation: mainly, “advancing human intentional and promoting equality.” They also talk about the future of education and technology, and the need for it to b offered to all.
Towards the end of the letter, the couple announces the start of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative “to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation. Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.”
To launch the initiative, the couple says it will give 99 percent of their Facebook shares–worth about $45 billion–while they are still alive to advance the mission. They say they’ll announce more about the project in the next few months after they “settle into our new family rhythm and return from our maternity and paternity leaves.”
In just 35 minutes the post was shared more than 9,000 times and liked more than 155,000 times.
