Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer, Wife Donating More than $25 Million for COVID-19 Relief

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, are donating more than $25 million through the Ballmer Group for COVID-19 relief efforts in Los Angeles, Seattle and Eastern Michigan, the organization announced Friday. 

$10 million of that will be going to the University of Washington Medicine’s Emergency Response Fund to speed up testing for a possible coronavirus vaccine, according to the group through ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk.

Earlier this week, the Ballmer Group announced it was donating $1 million to California-related COVID-19 relief efforts. They had also previously pledged a $3 million donation to Seattle relief efforts.

As of the end of March, Ballmer was worth nearly $58 billion. He was ranked No. 9 in Forbes' most recent 400 ranking in terms of richest Americans. He was ranked No. 19 globally, per Forbes.

Earlier this week, Ballmer reached an agreement with MSG to buy The Forum for $400 million in cash. The deal completes a major hurdle in the Clippers' effort to construct a new arena in Inglewood, Calif., something Ballmer has pushed for since he purchased the team for $2 billion in 2014.

Amid the NBA's hiatus, the Clippers, along with the Lakers and Kings, have formed a joint plan to compensate the hundreds of part-time and contract workers that typically staff games at Staples Center. 

As of Friday evening, there are more than 575,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide, causing more than 26,000 deaths. There are nearly 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, the most of any country globally.