Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to give majority of $124 billion net worth to charity

Agencies |Washington

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has said that he intends to give away the majority of his wealth during his lifetime.

Making the comments during an interview to CNN at his Washington DC home, Bezos revealed he and his partner Lauren Sánchez are currently “building the capacity" to be able to disseminate his vast fortune.

This marks the first time that Bezos has revealed his plans for his wealth.

The billionaire has previously faced heavy criticism for not signing the Giving Pledge – a promise by the world's wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.

Bezos did not reveal specifics regarding where exactly his money would be spent; however, he has already pledged $10 billion – around 8% of his current net worth – over 10 years to the Bezos Earth Fund, which his partner co-chairs.

The fund aims, amongst other things, to reduce the carbon footprint of construction grade-cement and steel, and advance methods of monitoring carbon emissions.

"The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way,” he said to CNN.

“It’s not easy. 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,” Bezos added. “So you have to think about it carefully, and you have to have brilliant people on the team.”