The Amazon founder pledged to give away most of his fortune to charities.
According to CNN, “Jeff Bezos plans to give away the majority of his $124 billion net worth during his lifetime, he will devote the bulk of his wealth to fighting climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions.”
The multibillionaire did not specify the charities he will donate the money to or when. The news came amid Bezos laying off thousands of employees from Amazon.
“After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs. One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required,” said Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices & services at Amazon.
“We notified impacted employees yesterday and will continue to work closely with each individual to provide support, including assisting in finding new roles.”
Recently, the E-commerce giant sat down in an interview with CNN and shared his feelings about giving away most of his fortune.
Sitting alongside his partner, the journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sanchez, the billionaire said that currently, they are building up the capacity to give away this huge amount of money.
“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way. It’s not easy, building Amazon was not easy,” he told CNN’S Chloe Melas.
“It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates and I’m finding that philanthropy is very similar – it’s not easy it’s very hard.”
He added, “We are building the capacity to being able to give away this money. There are a bunch of ways that I think you could do ineffective things, too.”
“So you have to think about it carefully, and you have to have brilliant people on the team.”
Previously, the 58-year-old commercial astronaut has been criticized for not signing the Giving Pledge – a promise by the wealthiest people in the world to dedicate a significant part of their fortune to charitable causes.
“The fourth wealthiest person in the world declined to say exactly how much he would be giving away, or where it is likely to be spent,” per Daily Mail.
The pledge had 236 signatories, and Bezos, not being one of them, attracted backlash from the critics.
According to Daily Mail, “He has refrained from setting a target amount to give away in his lifetime and has committed $ 10 billion over ten years – about 8 percent of his current net worth – to the Bezos Earth Fund.”
Earlier this month, Bezos and Sanchez announced a $100 million grant to American singer, songwriter, actress, and philanthropist, Dolly Parton as part of her Courage and Civility Award.
“It is the third such award, following similar grants to chef Jose Andrés, who has spent some of the money making meals for Ukrainians — and the climate advocate and CNN contributor Van Jones.” – CNN.
Talking about his $100 million grant to Parton, Jeff said that the singer always did bold things with civility and kindness.
“She’s a unifier, we have big problems in the world, and the way big problems are dealt with is you have to work together.”
Meanwhile, Sanchez added, “When you think of Dolly, everyone smiles. All she wants to do is bring light into other people’s world.”
“That’s all, and so we couldn’t have thought of someone better to give this award to.”
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Sources: CNN – Daily Mail
