“She’s Giving Away $7.8 Billion: Inside the Unbelievable Pledge of Judy Faulkner — the Billionaire Who Refused to Keep It All”

At 82 years old, most billionaires are quietly protecting their legacies — locking down trusts, passing on empires, carving their initials into buildings that will bear their names long after they’re gone. But Judy Faulkner isn’t like most billionaires.

The founder and CEO of Epic Systems, one of the world’s most influential healthcare software companies, just made a decision that stunned both Wall Street and Silicon Valley: she’s giving away 99% of her $7.8 billion fortune.

No secret heirs. No sprawling foundation bearing her name. No vanity projects.

Just a promise — one that could change lives, communities, and perhaps the way America’s ultra-wealthy think about legacy.

The Quiet Billionaire Who Refused to Play by the Rules

Judy Faulkner has never fit the stereotype of a tech billionaire. She doesn’t own a private jet. She doesn’t host celebrity fundraisers or post from yachts. She’s been married to the same man for more than fifty years.

When asked once why she never sought the spotlight, she smiled and said, “I prefer to build something that lasts longer than attention.”

That “something” was Epic Systems, a company she started in a Wisconsin basement in 1979 with $70,000 and a handful of engineers. Today, Epic powers medical records for more than 300 million patients worldwide, touching almost every hospital network in America. If your doctor’s office has a screen with your history, prescriptions, and allergies — there’s a good chance you’re part of Epic’s digital universe.

And now, the woman behind it is trying to rewrite what it means to be rich.

A Billionaire Who Refused to Be a Billionaire

When Faulkner announced her pledge — to give away 99% of her wealth through the Giving Pledge, an initiative founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — even her own employees were caught off guard.

There were no fireworks, no press conference, no photo op. Just a handwritten note filed with the foundation, stating plainly:

“Money, like technology, is a tool. It’s only valuable when you use it to fix what’s broken.”

It was vintage Judy: humble, methodical, quietly seismic.

Inside Epic’s campus — a sprawling, storybook complex filled with whimsical buildings, from castles to treehouses — the mood was emotional. Many of her staffers have worked with her for decades, watching her guide the company through industry storms and massive growth without ever taking Epic public.

“Judy could’ve cashed out a dozen times over,” said one longtime employee. “She never did. She always said once a company goes public, it stops serving its customers and starts serving shareholders.”

Instead, Faulkner built a private company so financially solid it could rival the giants — and then decided to give away nearly every penny of her personal gain.

The Power of the Giving Pledge

The Giving Pledge began in 2010 as a radical idea: encourage the world’s billionaires to commit at least half of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetimes or in their wills.

But few have matched the audacity of Judy Faulkner’s percentage — 99%.

She joins a small group of “almost-total givers” — names like Chuck Feeney, who secretly gave away $8 billion before dying broke by choice, and MacKenzie Scott, whose spontaneous multi-billion-dollar donations have shaken philanthropy to its core.

Yet Faulkner’s move feels different.

This isn’t just a wealthy woman writing a check. It’s the founder of one of America’s most powerful data companies signaling that purpose might matter more than profit.

The Mystery of Judy Faulkner’s Fortune

Unlike other tech titans, Faulkner’s wealth wasn’t built on consumer gadgets or social media. It came from something far more intimate — your medical data.

Epic’s software runs quietly in the background of your healthcare life, connecting your doctors, insurance, and prescriptions. It’s the invisible network that makes modern hospitals work.

And with that power came immense responsibility — a responsibility Faulkner took seriously. She refused to sell out to Big Tech, resisted IPO pressure, and refused to compromise user privacy.

“She built her empire without ever exploiting people’s data,” said one former health IT executive. “In an era where everyone was selling user information, she drew the line. She kept healthcare sacred.”

Now, she’s doing the same with her fortune.

The Question That Started It All

Those close to Faulkner say the decision to give it all away didn’t happen overnight.

“She’d been talking about legacy for years,” said a friend who’s known her since college. “But she always came back to the same question: ‘If you die with more money than you need, what was the point of making it?’”

That question haunted her through the pandemic, when Epic’s technology was vital in coordinating COVID-19 vaccine rollouts. She saw firsthand how software — a few lines of code, really — could save lives.

That, she told her team later, was the real power of money: not in what it buys, but what it builds.

So she decided to put her billions to work — permanently.

Where Will the Money Go?

Faulkner hasn’t yet released a detailed breakdown of her giving plans, but insiders say her focus areas are already clear: healthcare innovation, education, and data access for underserved communities.

She’s especially passionate about funding technologies that make healthcare more equitable — software for rural hospitals, community health programs, and digital literacy projects that empower patients to control their own medical data.

“Judy doesn’t just want to fund hospitals,” said a source familiar with her plans. “She wants to change the way healthcare works for everyone — especially people who can’t afford it.”

Her philanthropy could also inspire a new wave of tech-for-good investments in the healthcare sector, bridging the gap between Silicon Valley idealism and public health realities.

The Woman Behind the Curtain

To understand Judy Faulkner’s mindset, you have to understand how she sees the world — not as an empire to rule, but as a puzzle to solve.

Colleagues describe her as brilliant, demanding, deeply private, and unfailingly mission-driven. She’s been known to quiz new hires about their favorite storybook characters (Epic’s conference rooms are named after fairy tales) and once told a group of engineers that “magic is just code written by people who care.”

She still drives herself to work every day, walking among employees in the cafeteria like anyone else. There’s no entourage, no press team, no obsession with image.

And yet, she’s built one of the most mythic companies in America — an empire disguised as a dream factory, hidden in the Wisconsin woods.

The Billionaire Who Doesn’t Believe in Billionaires

Perhaps the most radical thing about Judy Faulkner’s pledge isn’t the number — it’s the philosophy.

“I don’t think anyone needs to be a billionaire,” she once said. “It just happened along the way. What matters is what you do with it.”

In an age where headlines are dominated by private rockets and mega-mansions, Faulkner’s words land like a rebuke — quiet but seismic.

She’s never run for office, never endorsed a candidate, and rarely gives interviews. But her act — giving away nearly everything — is its own kind of political statement: a rejection of hoarded wealth in favor of shared progress.

“She’s saying to the world, ‘This money doesn’t belong to me — it belongs to the work,’” said Dr. Anjali Rao, a healthcare equity researcher. “That’s revolutionary.”

The Ripple Effect

Faulkner’s decision could set a new tone for America’s richest entrepreneurs.

In recent years, public trust in billionaires has eroded. Critics point to philanthropy as a PR shield for inequality, while defenders argue that private giving fuels innovation government can’t.

But Faulkner’s approach — quiet, consistent, unbranded — offers a third way.

“She’s not trying to fix her image,” said a longtime Epic advisor. “She’s trying to fix the system.”

If more tech leaders followed her lead, experts say, the global philanthropy landscape could change overnight. Imagine if even a handful of CEOs redirected their wealth toward curing diseases, educating girls, or combating climate change — not someday, but now.

The Real Meaning of Legacy

Judy Faulkner’s story raises a question for all of us — not just the ultra-rich.

When the headlines fade and the numbers blur, what will your legacy be?

Maybe you don’t have billions to give away. Maybe you don’t have millions. But you do have something — time, skills, empathy, imagination — that can change a life.

You can mentor a student. Volunteer at a shelter. Help fund a local health clinic. Start a scholarship, even if it’s $500. Every act of giving, no matter the size, plants a seed.

As Faulkner herself once said:

“Wealth isn’t about what you keep. It’s about what you set free.”

The Final Lesson

In the end, Judy Faulkner’s 99% pledge isn’t just philanthropy — it’s philosophy.

She’s reminding us that success without generosity is just accumulation. That fortune without purpose is hollow. That the greatest return on investment isn’t in stock portfolios, but in people.

Maybe that’s why her story feels less like a billionaire headline and more like a parable — a story about the power of giving, the humility of purpose, and the courage to let go.

Because in a world obsessed with keeping, Judy Faulkner’s decision to give everything away might just be the most radical act of all.