Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and the fourth-richest man in the world with a net worth of $124 billion plans to give away the bulk of his wealth to charities that focuses on climate change and social and political discrimination. Bezos, founder of the e-commerce giant Amazon revealed its plan to CNN in an interview.
Bezos and his partner, journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, said in an interview that they intend to donate the majority of his wealth within his lifetime and currently the couple is “building the capacity to be able to give away this money."
“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way," he said and further hints that though he intends to give away most part of his wealth, he is still looking at ways to maximize profit in business. “It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding — and I think Lauren is finding the same thing — that charity, philanthropy, is very similar."
“There are a bunch of ways that I think you could do ineffective things, too," he added. “So you have to think about it carefully and you have to have brilliant people on the team."
Jeff Bezos has refused to say how much of his money would be spent where or in what manner.
Bezos has given the Bezos Earth Fund, which Sánchez co-chairs, $10 billion over the course of ten years, or around 8% of his current net wealth. According to the CNN report, some of its top priorities include lowering the carbon footprint of building-grade cement and steel, pressuring financial regulators to take climate-related risks into account, advancing data and mapping technologies to monitor carbon emissions, and constructing large-scale, naturally occurring carbon sinks.
Since they started dating in 2019, this was the first time Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez agreed to an interview together.
Bezos has already come under fire for refusing to sign the Giving Pledge, a commitment made by hundreds of the world's wealthiest individuals to devote the majority of their wealth to charity organizations.
