It’s not always so purely cynical. Pretty much all the super-wealthy have eventually turned to philanthropy... especially in their later years. Ford, Annenberg, Carnegie, Gates... they all eventually seem to go that way.
More to my own point: This is what puts the big lie to the worn-out liberal refrain that "the rich don't pay their fair share". Not only do "the rich" pay far MORE than a fair share in a lifetime of taxes... but they pretty much uniformly all end up turning to massive philanthropy projects. Not only are liberals idiots, but they're ungrateful idiots as well.