NEW DELHI, India — India’s second-richest man, Azim Premji, the billionaire chairman of Wipro (WIT), is handing shares in the tech company worth nearly 530 billion rupees ($7.5 billion) to his philanthropic foundation.
According to Forbes, Premji, 73, has a fortune of more than $18 billion.
The tech tycoon has now donated a total of $21 billion to the Azim Premji Foundation over several years, including 67% of Wipro’s shares, the foundation said in a statement.
Premji, 73, has a fortune of more than $18 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Wipro was founded by Premji’s father in 1945 as a vegetable oil manufacturer, and transitioned to the technology industry in the 1980s under Premji’s leadership. It has since grown into one of India’s biggest IT services companies, with more than 160,000 employees worldwide and over 1,200 clients in industries ranging from aerospace to retail.
Premji’s foundation focuses on supporting education, and runs the Azim Premji University in Bangalore.
