Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to give away most of his $124BN fortune during his lifetime.
In an interview with CNN, Bezos was questioned if he intended to donate the majority of his money to charitable causes, to which he replied: “Yeah, I do.”
He plans to focus his charitable giving on climate change and supporting people who can unify the world.
Bezos, who is the fourth-richest person in the world, has been criticized for not signing the Giving Pledge, a campaign founded by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to encourage the wealthiest to give most of their money to charity.
To this point, he had not specified his plans for his fortune, though he had committed around $10BN to the Bezos Earth Fund.
He was appearing alongside his partner, Lauren Sánchez, in their first interview since becoming a couple in 2019 to promote the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, which has this year gone to country singer and philanthropist Dolly Parton and hands her a $100M grant.
“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way,” he said. “It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work — a bunch of very smart, 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, so we’re building the capacity to be able to give away this money.”
Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO last year but remains Executive Chairman.
Elsewhere in the interview, Bezos said the current global financial turmoil meant it was sensible for consumers and businesses alike to “take some risk off the table.
“Keep some dry powder on hand,” he added. “Just a little bit of risk reduction could make the difference for that small business, if we do get into even more serious economic problems. You’ve got to play the probabilities a little bit.”
Amazon’s streaming service Prime Video is behind the streaming’s most expensive show, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Fire, which has a five-season commitment valued at about $1BN.
Watch Bezos a clip of conversation with CNN here
