Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder and executive chairman, has given 2 million shares of the streaming company — currently worth about $1.1 billion — to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Hastings on Jan. 24 disposed of 2 million Netflix shares, roughly 40% of his stock holdings, which were given as a gift to an unidentified entity, per an SEC filing. The transaction code on the statement of change in beneficial ownership was marked “G,” indicating a “bona fide gift,” per the SEC. The recipient of the shares was not disclosed.
According to a source familiar with the transaction, Hastings granted the 2 million shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a charitable foundation that says it works to “bridge critical gaps and divisions to deliver strategies that reduce systemic inequities” in the Bay Area.
SVCF is a donor-advisedcommunity foundation launched in 2007 that offers tax benefits to contributors. In 2022, the organization granted $2.57 billion dollars to nearly 6,000 organizations, $394 million of which supported nonprofits across the 10-county Bay Area, according to its most recent annual report. As of the end of 2022, SVCF reported 1,060 donor-advised funds with an aggregate value of $9.4 billion, with net assets totaling $10.1 billion. Previous donors include meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, who have donated about $1.5 billion to the SVCF.
Hastings, through his family trust, still owns 2.99 million Netflix shares, which are worth about $1.72 billion, in addition to several million stock options. Prior to the recent stock transaction, Hastings had an estimated net worth of about $6.6 billion, mostly tied to his holdings in Netflix stock and options, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Hastings became executive chairman of Netflix in 2023, stepping down as CEO after serving in the role for 25 years. Currently, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters serve as co-CEOs of the streaming giant.
Hastings has a long track record as an educational philanthropist. In 2020, Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, gave$120 million to Spelman College, Morehouse College and the United Negro College Fundfor scholarships to historically Black colleges and universities. Last year, Hastings donated $20 million toMinerva University, styled as a next-generation institution of higher education. Hastings and Quillin also donated $10 million to Tougaloo College, an HBCU in Mississippi, and the couple have supported the KIPP Foundation, which runs a national network of tuition-free charter schools serving low-income communities of color.
