Tim Cook says Apple is 'heartbroken' over Notre Dame fire and will donate to rebuilding work

Apple's Tim Cook has tweeted relief that there were no serious casualties in the Notre Dame fire, and said that the company would be donating to efforts to rebuild what he described as a "symbol of hope."

Speaking on Twitter, Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the company is "heartbroken" over the enormous fire damage to France's Notre Dame. The 850-year-old cathedral was in flames for 15 hours on Monday, in what is suspected to be an accident connected to renovation works. Cook reports that Apple is going to contribute funds to the rebuilding efforts.

We are heartbroken for the French people and those around the world for whom Notre Dame is a symbol of hope. Relieved that everyone is safe. Apple will be donating to the rebuilding efforts to help restore Notre Dame's precious heritage for future generations.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 16, 2019

Even before the fire was extinguished, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to rebuild the cathedral. While Apple has not publicly stated a sum it will donate, currently companies, businessmen and businesswomen have offered a total of around $677 million.

Apple Marche Saint-Germain, near Notre Dame. (Source: Apple)

Apple currently has three Apple Stores in Paris, with one, Apple Marche Saint-Germain, just a few streets away from Notre Dame.

Tim Cook has previously pledged unspecified donations to help with disaster relief following 2018's wildfires in California and $1 million to Indonesia earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in the same year.

53 Comments

anantksundaram 20390 comments · 18 Years

About 5 years ago

For all those folks that berate and denigrate the "billio-nayahs" and "millio-nayahs", I hope they can pause a bit and reflect on -- heck, perhaps even thank? -- all those Bs and Ms that have stepped up to already fund almost half a billion euros for the reconstruction and restoration of Notre Dame. With possibly more to come.

reciprocity 19 comments · 16 Years

It's great to hear that they'll be contributing. I hope Apple finds a way to open up iTunes donations, too, as an easy way for everyone to donate toward the rebuilding effort.

StrangeDays 12959 comments · 8 Years

anantksundaram said:

For all those folks that berate and denigrate the "billio-nayahs" and "millio-nayahs", I hope they can pause a bit and reflect on -- heck, perhaps even thank? -- all those Bs and Ms that have stepped up to already fund almost half a billion euros for the reconstruction and restoration of Notre Dame. With possibly more to come.

Doesn't make up for decades of poor economic policy that favors the billionaire class and creates an ever-widening wealth gap where there are more billionaires minted every year and the middle-class shrinks and the poor get poor. A few good deeds (tax write-offs to boot) aren't a course correction.

StrangeDays said:

anantksundaram said:

For all those folks that berate and denigrate the "billio-nayahs" and "millio-nayahs", I hope they can pause a bit and reflect on -- heck, perhaps even thank? -- all those Bs and Ms that have stepped up to already fund almost half a billion euros for the reconstruction and restoration of Notre Dame. With possibly more to come.

Doesn't make up for decades of poor economic policy that favors the billionaire class and creates an ever-widening wealth gap where there are more billionaires minted every year and the middle-class shrinks and the poor get poor. A few good deeds (tax write-offs to boot) aren't a course correction.

Of course, I should have expected nothing different from you!

Thanks for not disappointing.

zoetmb 2655 comments · 17 Years

StrangeDays said:

anantksundaram said:

For all those folks that berate and denigrate the "billio-nayahs" and "millio-nayahs", I hope they can pause a bit and reflect on -- heck, perhaps even thank? -- all those Bs and Ms that have stepped up to already fund almost half a billion euros for the reconstruction and restoration of Notre Dame. With possibly more to come.

Doesn't make up for decades of poor economic policy that favors the billionaire class and creates an ever-widening wealth gap where there are more billionaires minted every year and the middle-class shrinks and the poor get poor. A few good deeds (tax write-offs to boot) aren't a course correction.

True, but it's Congress that makes that policy, although admittedly at the push of lobbyists who represent the rich. We're never going to get out of that situation until we get money out of politics and the current Supreme Court is never going to do that. If the B's and M's would do more like this (and pay their fair share of taxes), I would have less of a problem. The Gilded Age rich were largely horrible people, but at least they left us with some great public spaces: libraries, museums, opera houses, railroad terminals, parks, university buildings, etc. And most of the big tech companies pay most employees quite well (although a lot of that high compensation goes into ridiculously over-priced housing).

Without Congress getting money out of politics, I don't know what the solution is to restore a strong middle-class in the U.S. At least unemployment levels are relatively low and for the poor, at least many states and cities are taking action on their own to raise the minimum wage. In NYC, the minimum wage is now $15/hr for almost all employees. With two people in a household making that wage full time, that's about $60K a year and while still tough, they can live okay, especially if they're already in affordable housing. I believe that when housing is built for the rich, the developers should have to build X units for the middle-class and poor. And the real middle class - an $800,000 2 bedroom condo is not viable for the middle class as I define it. I'm sure plenty here who only believe in letting capitalism and the markets define pricing will strenuously disagree, but all the homeless living along California highways says that our current system doesn't work anymore. Every new building constructed in NYC is only for the rich and sales prices on old units are also only for the relatively wealthy. Archie Bunker would be a rich man today because he could have sold his little crappy house in Queens for close to $1 million. Of course after selling, he would have had to move to somewhere where housing is a lot less expensive.