Apple CEO Tim Cook will donate most of his multi-million pound fortune to charity

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The Apple CEO and multimillionaire Tim Cook will join Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and other members of the super-rich community donating most of their fortune to charity.

Cook told Fortune magazine he plans to give away the majority of his wealth before he dies after paying for his ten-year-old nephew’s university education and has already started quietly donating money to philanthropic causes.

A substantial part of the 54-year-old’s fortune is tied up in an Apple stock grant currently worth an estimated £570 million, which Cook received in 2011 when he succeeded Steve Jobs as Apple's chief executive, according to the Press Association.

Cook’s admission follows initiatives set by other executives to encourage the wealthiest to donate their money, such as those led by billionaire investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who jointly launched The Giving Pledge.

Pledgers, such as Facebook founder Zuckerberg, commit to dedicating the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.

Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan also recently donated a reported $75 million (£50 million) to a San Francisco hospital.

A forthcoming book about Jobs also includes the claim that Cook offered a partial liver transplant to Jobs after his health declined in 2009, an offer which he reportedly denied.