Jeff Bezos plans to give away his wealth to charity

Jeff Bezos — long criticized for being stingy with his $124 billion fortune — said in an interview he plans to give most of it away to charity during his lifetime.

The Amazon founder — currently the fourth wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes — has been criticized for not participating in the billionaires’ “Giving Pledge,” instead spending it on expensive toys including a massive yacht and a multistory luxury pad in New York City. Bezos also has poured billions into his rocket company, Blue Origin.

But in an interview this weekend he and his gal pal Lauren Sanchez gave to CNN, Bezos said he plans to donate most of his billions to fight climate change and address political and social divisiveness in the world.

Still, Bezos admitted that he doesn’t yet have a plan to unload his wealth and that he’ll take his time about doing so.

“It’s not easy,” Bezos said. “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.”

His ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, by contrast has given away nearly $4 billion to 465 organizations in less than a year and twice that amount over the past two years.

Previously Bezos committed $10 billion over the next decade – or about 8% of his current net worth to the Bezos Earth Fund, which Sanchez co-chairs. The fund’s mission is to reduce carbon footprint of cement and steel manufacturing.

His largest charitable donation prior to the Earth Fund was a $2 billion gift to help homeless families and to start preschools. 

Last month Bezos warned of a potential recession, advising consumers and businesses alike to “Take some risk off the table,” Keep some dry powder on hand…. 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.”