Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Celebrates Birth of Daughter With Pledge to Give Away 99% of Shares

— -- Mark Zuckerberg announced the birth of his daughter Max today in a heartfelt post where he also shared his plans to give away 99 percent of his Facebook shares -- amounting to $45 billion at today's prices -- to fund a new charitable initiative.

In a letter to their daughter Max, Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, said the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will "join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation."

"Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities," the proud new parents wrote in the letter, which was posted to both of their Facebook pages.

The new parents said they would provide more details "in the coming months once we settle into our new family rhythm and return from our maternity and paternity leaves." However, a Facebook filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today sheds more light on how Zuckerberg plans to gradually donate his shares to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

"He has informed us that he plans to sell or gift no more than $1 billion of Facebook stock each year for the next three years," the filing said. It added the Facebook co-founder and CEO plans to retain his majority voting position in the company "for the foreseeable future."

Explaining their big gift, Zuckerberg and Chan wrote to their daughter they felt "a great responsibility to leave the world a better place for you and all children. We wish you a life filled with the same love, hope and joy you give us. We can't wait to see what you bring to this world."

Zuckerberg didn't say when his daughter was born, however, the new father made headlines recently when he announced his choice to take two months of paternity leave once his daughter was born. Facebook has also increased its leave for all new parents, giving fathers and same sex couples the chance to take up to four months off to spend with their new babies.