Jeff Bezos will Donate Fortune in life, but wants Efficiency
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the world’s richest men, said today that he intends to give up most of his $124 billion wealth in his lifetime – to join an ever-growing list of billions of benefactors, which includes the Likes Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and David Velez.
Bezos is ranked fourth in the Bloomberg Index for billionaires, after only Gotam Adani, infrastructure in India ($138 billion); Bernard Arno of LVMH ($160 billion); Eileon Musk, whose wealth is over $200 billion.
Bezos, who split McKenzi Scott in 2019 after 25 years together, made the announcement during a CNN interview with girlfriend Lauren Sanchez.
He said he is looking for ways to distribute his wealth by maximizing the impact of donations, as there are many ways to do this inefficiently.
“It’s not easy,” Bezos said. “Building Amazon wasn’t easy either. It took a lot of hard work and very smart people. We and Lauren are finding that charity work is very similar. It’s not easy. Very difficult .”
The Bezos Declaration comes three years after his ex-Wife signed the Offer Pledge, the campaign established by Warren Buffett, Bell and Melinda Gates to encourage billionaires to give up at least half of their lifetime wealth.
Since then, McKenzi Scott has donated half of his wealth (US$12 billion), including Brazilian initiatives such as Vitor Brazil and Jerado Falkis.
In recent years, Bezos has come under fire for not joining the movement.
The Amazon founder has already made other major donations in recent years. In 2020, he announced $10 billion to fight climate change through the Bezos Earth Fund. Previously, he had already donated two billion US dollars to help homeless families and establish schools for children.
