The world’s second-richest man, Jeff Bezos, yesterday said he was, “building the capacity” to help causes close to his heart, including the battle against climate change.
Bezos said he plans to give away most of his $124 billion (£110bn) fortune during his lifetime.
The Amazon founder, 58, is the world’s second-richest man after Elon Musk, the Tesla boss and new owner of Twitter, according to Forbes.
According to Sky News, this was the first time he has revealed plans to give away most of his money.
Bezos had been criticised in the past for not signing the Giving Pledge, a campaign founded by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to encourage the mega rich to contribute most of their wealth to charity.
Asked directly by CNN whether he planned to give most of his money away, Bezos said: “Yeah, I do.”
Bezos told the US broadcaster that he and his girlfriend, the journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sanchez, were “building the capacity to be able to give away this money.”
He said the money would go to causes that work to tackle climate change and to support people who can unify humanity.
It was announced a week ago at the start of the COP27 summit that his Bezos Earth Fund had pledged $1 billion more by 2030 to help protect carbon reserves and biodiversity – building on $9 billion of funds already committed to the climate cause. Also, last week it was revealed that country music star Dolly Parton had received a $100 million (£85m) prize from Bezos.
The courage and civility award gives people the chance to donate cash to causes of their choice.
Bezos was the latest billionaire to give away portions of their fortune. He has by no means been the most generous, even being out-donated by his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott.
According to Forbes, while Bezos had pledged a lot of support, he has only donated $2.4 billion (£2.03 billion) to philanthropic causes in his lifetime.
That’s about $10 billion (£8.5 billion) less than Ms Scott, who Forbes said has given away $12.8 billion (£10.9 billion). His donations were dwarfed by many of his tech and business billionaire contemporaries.
Warren Buffett tops the list of billionaire American donors, having given $46.1 billion (£39.2 billion) over his lifetime. He’s followed by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, who had donated a combined $33.4 billion (£28.4 billion).
George Soros and Michael Bloomberg both had given away more than Bezos, at $18.1 billion (£15.4 billion) and $12.7 billion (£10.8 billion) respectively.
All giving by modern billionaires has been outpaced, however, by an Indian businessman who died in 1904.
Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, who founded the multinational conglomerate Tata Group, is said to have given donations worth $102bn (£86.76bn) today, according to Edelgive Hurun’s India Philanthropist of the Century report.
Parton, a long-time philanthropist herself, has already established a number of charities and put $1m towards the development of a COVID vaccine during the pandemic.
Bezos has more time on his hands to devote to his passions after stepping down as chief executive of Amazon last year.
He continues to own about 10 per cent of the ecommerce-to-streaming giant.
His other business interests include ownership of the Washington Post and space tourism company, Blue Origin.
