Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to give away majority of wealth for climate change, charitable cause: Report

The fourth richest man in the world with a fortune of $124.1 billion - Jeff Bezos - has announced his plans to donate a majority of his wealth to a charitable cause. Bezos plans to donate the majority of his wealth to charitable causes within his lifetime, according to various reports. The founder of the e-commerce giant Amazon revealed his plan in an interview with CNN.

In the interview, Bezos said that the majority of the donations will go towards fighting climate change and to people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions. As per the reports, Bezos said that philanthropy is really hard and his organisation is building the capacity to be able to give away this money.

Bezos, who stepped down as CEO of Amazon in July 2021, owns slightly less than 10 per cent of the company's shares along with the Washington Post and aerospace company Blue Origin.

In 2020 he had announced the formation of the Bezos Earth Fund, which he set up to grant USD 10 billion over 10 years to scientists, activists and non-governmental organizations "to help preserve and protect the natural world."

As per reports, Bezos is yet to officially sign the Giving Pledge, which encourages high net-worth individuals to commit to giving away more than half their wealth.

This news of Bezos' philanthropy comes amid reports that Amazon has now planned to cut down jobs of around 10,000 employees this week. The layoff is said to be one of the largest job cuts in the company's history to focus on the company's devices organization, retail division and human resources, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

(With ANI inputs)