Bezos wants to donate his assets to charity, but it is not known how much or to whom

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos decided to divest himself of his riches, promising to to donateduring his lifetime, most of his vast estate of 124 billion dollars. After being named the richest person in modern history in 2018 by Forbeshaving seen its wealth grow even more during the coronavirus pandemic, while the rest of humanity became poorerand went through various controversies on working conditions of its employees, Bezos now wants to become a philanthropist.

The 58-year-old founder of Amazonof the aerospace company Blue Origin and current owner of Washington Post he is currently the fourth richest person in the world. Unlike other billionaires, such as Bill Gates for example, he has always kept himself quite far from social causes or issues and has often been criticized for his relative lack of generosity in charitable or charity ventures. But now almost on the threshold of 60 years, the entrepreneur seems to be ready to change course and has promised to support, with most of his assets, causes it deems most worthy.

This decision seems to have been made together with, or thanks to, his partner, la journalist and philanthropist Lauren Sanchez. The two, who have been dating since 2019, would in fact have announced together that they are working to choose the way improve to distribute Bezos’ assets, reports the Guardianevaluating which are the causes that most need to be supported at present.

Bezos decided to go public with his decision after he awarded $100 million to country singer Dolly Partonas part of the annual “Courage and civilization” prize organized by the billionaire, who can decide to donate the money to associations or charities of his choice. “All he wants to do is bring light into the world – said Sánchez referring to Parton – that’s why we couldn’t think of anyone else to receive this award, which we know Dolly will use to do extraordinary things”.

In addition to the announcement, however, Bezos did not specify which one percentage of his fortune will come destined for charity, nor provided details with respect to what will be the causes on which he will focus more. To date, one of the largest initiatives funded by the billionaire is the Bezos earth fund, co-chaired by Sanchez, which is responsible for reducing Amazon’s carbon emissions.