
OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte made the announcement at the World of Health IT 2008 conference in Copenhagen, saying that the donations would be concentrated on the world's 50 poorest countries as well as post-war conflict zones and other areas holding displaced populations.
The campaign will be run exclusively through Amazon and will close on 31 December 2008.
Negroponte also revealed that the OLPC is developing its next-generation laptop which will feature open source software. The organisation aims to deliver a $100 (£67) laptop in the US by the end of 2009, a claim Gartner had earlier dismissed.
OLPC yesterday published the latest XO Software Release 8.2.0, which holds a Software Update tool and more language translations.