headquarters he owned one of the worlds biggest yachts the 400foot 122 meters octopus which was the venue for many lavish parties and the base for scuba expeditions allen invested heavily in research projects in his hometown seattle he invested 100 million to found the allen institute for brain science in 2003 a decade later he founded the allen institute for artificial intelligence to study the impacts on society of new technologies and the allen institute for cell science to fund research for the treatment of diseases he spent more than 250 million building a museum devoted to his hero jimi hendrix which morphed into a music and science fiction exhibit designed by frank gehry his personal charitable foundation gave to a diverse array of causes including antipoaching initiatives in africa climate and energy research and projects on homelessness as well as the arts and culture allen gave away more than 15 billion in his lifetime to donate more than half his wealth to charityhe never married and had no childrenwith inputs from agencies