Brian Acton
Profile Summary
Brian Acton is a U.S. technology entrepreneur from California, born in 1972. He co-founded WhatsApp, which Facebook reportedly acquired for $19 billion in 2014, according to a recent news report NewsAPI. His net worth is estimated at ~$3.6B RTB.
Business & SEC Activity
Acton is associated with GrafTech International Ltd. and has 22 insider filings recorded with the SEC SEC EDGAR. These filings are Form 4 reports, which disclose transactions in a public company's securities by directors, officers, and other insiders. The available records show filings from 2021 through April 2023.
Philanthropy
Brian Acton is listed as a signatory of The Giving Pledge Giving Pledge.
Political Activity
Federal records show 13 contributions totaling $10,333.70 between April 27, 2007, and November 3, 2024 FEC. The records identify $500 in donations to Democratic recipients, $875 to Republican recipients, and $8,958.70 to PACs or other recipients; the largest listed recipients were Oxbow Carbon & Minerals Holdings political action committees, which received a combined $7,500 FEC.
In the News
A July 14, 2026, report said Facebook rejected Acton's job application in 2009 and later paid $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp, which he co-founded NewsAPI.
U.S. Presence
Political Contributions
By Party
Top Recipients
Matched by name only. These are the donations the FEC lists under this person’s name — so a different person with the same name can show up here too.
SEC Filings
Associated Companies
Entities appearing alongside this person in SEC full-text search — an association, not necessarily ownership or control. Follow each link to the primary SEC record to judge for yourself.
Recent Insider Filings
Score Breakdown
The PBS is a weighted average of 2 components. The formula is open and versioned — the weight percentages below show how much each component contributes to the final score.
Evidenced charitable giving — built on what they actually give each year, not parked assets. Dominated by generosity (annual giving relative to net worth — the share of your fortune you give), plus the absolute scale of that giving, plus a small nudge for signing the Giving Pledge (a commitment, not a realized action).
Data: ProPublica 990 charitable disbursements, net worth, The Giving Pledge registry
How much sourced, public accountability data exists — net worth, political contributions, SEC filings, foundation 990s, news coverage, and a verified profile. More public disclosure scores higher.
Data: FEC, SEC EDGAR, ProPublica 990s, GDELT / NewsAPI, Wikidata
Formula (v2): PBS = 65% x Philanthropy + 35% x Transparency
Scored on 8/31/2026 on a 0–100 scale. The score uses only the signals we have populated data for. Goal Impact, Controversy, and Community Approval are deferred until that data exists — Phase 1 goal adoption, controversy detection, and community votes respectively.
All data is sourced from public records. Each section links to its original source.