David Friedberg on tech wealth responsibility
The billionaire investor鈥檚 company wants to use technology solve some of the world鈥檚 biggest problems.
Billionaire investor David Friedberg is the CEO of The Production Board, a company that wants to use technology to solve some of the world鈥檚 biggest problems, from climate change to food production by investing in start-up businesses.
When questioned by the Hardtalk programme鈥檚 Stephen Sackur about whether tech wealth comes with a clear responsibility to do public good, Mr Friedberg said: 鈥淭here are two personalities鈥� the first personality is 鈥業 am going to be the best at reinvesting these dollars in building the next enabling technologies that is going to benefit the world and that is more important than donating money to non-profits鈥�.
鈥淭he second cohort is 鈥榓fter a certain amount of money I don鈥檛 need anymore, let me give it all to non-profits and let鈥檚 benefit the world today.鈥�
鈥淎nd there are very smart and rational people in both camps.鈥�
Asked about the billions of dollars being invested in space exploration by individuals such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, Mr Friedberg said he was not going to rush to judgement to say that someone choosing to invest their wealth in discovering new frontiers is doing right or wrong.
鈥淚 think time will tell what the benefits will be that will accrue ultimately to all people if those discoveries do pan out and they do yield benefit for us.鈥�
