Billionaire Jeff Bezos To Donate More Than Half Of His Wealth

Not long ago, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was criticized for not signing the Giving Pledge. The richest people in the world commit to donating their wealth to charity. Now CNN is reporting a surprise.

Because Jeff Bezos has now confirmed that he does have plans to donate his fortune. The former Amazon CEO revealed in an exclusive interview with CNN that he plans to donate most of his net worth – currently around $124 billion – to charity while he’s still alive.

Most of it will go towards fighting climate change as well as supporting people who can create “unity” for humanity, it said. At CNN he gave an overview of his donation plans, but revealed only a few details.

Already Preparing

It is also the case that he is working with his partner Lauren Sánchez on the necessary steps to use the assets for charitable purposes. That sounds a lot like a new foundation that could eventually do this distribution work.

More donations

Bezos recently announced a $100 million donation to Dolly Parton’s literacy efforts. He previously pledged $10 billion over 10 years to the Bezos Earth Fund, which aims to advance political and technological solutions to human-caused climate change. His ex-wife MacKenzie Scott has already given away around 4 billion dollars to various organizations in the past few months.

Of course, this begs the question as to why Jeff Bezos has waited until now to confirm that he will be donating the bulk of his money to charity. Some media reports speculate that it could be the influence of his new girlfriend that led Bezos to this step. Others argue that Bezos is trying to improve his reputation by donating most of his fortune.