How Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos Are Spending Billions To Make Our World A Better Place To Live In

With the new year rolling around, tech billionaires are in the spirit of giving back to the world. One of those is Microsoft founder and long-time philanthropist Bill Gates. The other, surprisingly, is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who's charity efforts are few and far between.

Bezos announced today that his charitable Day One Fund will be helping giving a grand total of $95.7 million in grants to 24 US organisations working to help the homeless. Launched earlier in September, the Day One Fund is a combination of the Families Fund, which provides annual awards to nonprofits that shelter and feed poor communities, and the Academics Fund, that provides "high-quality, full-scholarship" preschools for low-income neighbourhoods.

Also Read: Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos Are Funding A $26 Billion Google Project On A Green Energy Initiative

Of course, the charity isn't without selfish motivation. It comes after Amazon moved to block a new major business tax in Seattle earlier this year, which would have charged companies making at least $20 million a year. That tax would have raised about $50 million a year for the local homeless. Amazon actually strong-armed the city council to get the tax thrown out, so this is their way of saying, "Hey we're not really so bad."

Bill Gates on the other hand, in his yearly look back blog post, described all the various efforts the Gates foundation is working towards. For one thing, they're helping fund and develop a new polio vaccine currently in testing. If it works, It's meant to overcome problems in areas where where children aren't immunised. The shot is expected to begin proper implementation by 2019, and could even eradicate the disease.

Gates is also working with a clean energy investment fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures. They've announced the first list of companies they're investing in to promote solar and wind energy. However his own company he started 10 years ago, TerraPower, is developing new nuclear reactor technology, in the hopes it can be used as a stopgap alternative to coal plants.

Possibly the most immediate results however might be from another push the Gates Foundation is making. They've spent about $200 million on an economical flush-less toilet, and expect to send another 200 million before long. Once ready though it will help people in incredibly poor parts of the world, those that lack even running water, to put an affordable toilet in each of their homes.

So, what are you giving to charity this year?