U2 lead singer Bono defends Steve Jobs over criticism about his philanthropy

Irish rock band U2's lead singer, Bono, has defended Apple's co-founder, Steve Jobs, after a columnist wrote that the billionaire businessman does not give enough to charity.

The singer wrote in a letter in response to the New York Times article that Jobs said there was 'nothing better than the chance to save lives', when he approached him about a campaign to fight AIDS in Africa, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Apple was the biggest contributor for the (Product) Red fund-raising brand to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, giving tens of millions of dollars, Bono wrote.

"I'm proud to know him," Bono wrote about Jobs.

"He's a poetic fellow, an artist and a businessman. Just because he's been extremely busy, that doesn't mean that he and his wife, Laurene, haven't been thinking about these things," he added.

Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote in a column that Jobs was not a 'prominent philanthropist' despite having accumulated $7.8 million through holdings in Apple and the Walt Disney Company.

There was no public record of Jobs giving money to charity, Sorkin wrote.