Michael Dell’s Foundation Donates $100M To Fight ‘Daunting’ Coronavirus

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is donating millions to stabilizing livelihoods and small businesses as well as identifying potential treatments for the coronavirus pandemic. “It is vitally important to us that help reaches as many people and families as possible,” said Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell.

Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell and his wife’s foundation is donating $100 million to help small businesses and others combat the global coronavirus pandemic as well as find treatments for COVID-19.

“The magnitude of the problem is daunting, and it is vitally important to us that help reaches as many people and families as possible,” said Dell in a LinkedIn post on Friday. “Now more than ever, it’s imperative to stay home, if possible, in a collective effort to support those working selflessly on the front lines to keep us well.”

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is dedicating $100 million to initiatives and projects related to coronavirus relief. Approximately $80 million is being committed to providing relief for communities, focusing on supporting healthcare and education systems, sustaining the work of nonprofits and social enterprises, and stabilizing livelihoods and small businesses.

Another $20 million is being dedicated to ensuring that the coronavirus becomes treatable and is eradicated as quickly as possible. The foundation will give the funding to the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, which was launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard, to identify potential treatments for COVID-19 and accelerate their development and distribution.

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Susan and I are dedicating $100 million through @DellFdn to support global initiatives related to COVID-19 so more people get the help and support they need during this difficult time. https://t.co/0GigG02nwr via @LinkedIn

— Michael Dell (@MichaelDell) April 3, 2020

“Our team at the foundation has been on the ground with our partners and communities across the world. As we see the accelerating impact of COVID-19 on all communities, and especially on lower-resourced families, we want to make more resources available to help,” said Dell. “At the same time, the team at Dell Technologies has also been hard at work lending needed support – putting the full power of our technology, expertise and charitable dollars toward organizations that help address the immediate health, safety and sustainability of our communities.”

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Technologies is supporting front-line organizations working to treat and contain COVID-19 around the globe, said the CEO.

“Our advanced computing clusters are being used to understand disease outbreaks, including how diseases like COVID-19 are spreading and how to better track them,” said Dell. “Our technology is also enabling rapid genomics analysis of the virus to inform biomedical researchers in the hunt for better targets for new treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.”

In a separate coronavirus funding announcement last month, Dell Technologies, as a company, unveiled that it is providing millions of dollars to fight the coronavirus on several fronts including donating IT infrastructure valued at more than $850,000 to the Hubei Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China to help upgrade its technology to enable the center to respond to the epidemic more effectively. The $92 billion infrastructure giant has also set aside $3 million in funds and technology to help “meet the greatest needs of our communities and front-line organizations” working to treat and contain coronavirus across the globe.

“We are all navigating this new normal together,” Dell said on Friday. “As we lock arms virtually and try to help one another in the ways we can, our vast world suddenly feels a little smaller and a lot more connected. And for that, we are grateful.”