Tech giants make Hurricane Harvey pledges as Michael Dell leads the way with $36m donation

Apple, Microsoft and Facebook among tech firms pledging millions of dollars

Michael Dell has led the way with donations following Hurricane Harvey's destruction in Texas, pledging to give $36m (£28m) via his foundation.

Announcing the donation in a joint statement on the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation website, the pair said they would give $18m to launch the Rebuild Texas Fund, with the remaining $18m set to be donated by giving $1 for every $2 donated by the public.

The post stated: "This disaster is personal to everyone who has roots in Texas. Both of us were born and raised in Texas, and the street Michael grew up on in Houston is underwater now.

"Here in Texas, we have a massive rebuilding effort ahead of us. The Rebuild Texas Fund will work with community partners in affected regions with early focus on four areas: health and housing; schools and child care; workforce and transportation; and capital for rebuilding small businesses."

The Rebuild Texas Fund has the target of raising $100m and currently stands at $38.2m from over 12,000 donations.

Texas governor Greg Abbott recently claimed that the total damages caused by Hurricane Harvey could reach $180bn, branding it worse than Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Despite dwarfing the donations of others, Michael Dell is not the only tech giant to have pledged to the cause.

Amazon donated $1m to the American Red Cross, which was matched by Amazon users within just a few days. The online giant is still taking donations.

Apple CEO Tim Cook sent an email to all Apple employees, seen by Buzzfeed, which said that Apple had raised $1m at the time, in addition to $2m it had donated to the American Red Cross.

In a post on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the Facebook community has raised over $10m, including $1m from Facebook itself.

US comms giant Verizon also donated $10m to relief efforts, as well as giving those affected a range of free voice and data services.

Microsoft announced it would donate $2.5m in the form of cash, technology and services, while Samsung has given $500,000 to the American Red Cross and $500,000 in the form of products - including washing machines, dryers, charging stations, tablets and laptops.