Bezos to give away most of personal fortune, Amazon lays off workers

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said in an interview on Monday that he would give away the majority of his fortune during his lifetime.

This marks the first time that Bezos announces he would donate more than half of his personal fortune all throughout his life.

The fourth-wealthiest person in the world said he was “building the capacity to be able to give away this money.”

The challenge, he said, is to figure out how to donate a big part of his $124 billion personal fortune.

Exclusive: Jeff Bezos tells CNN that he'll give away the majority of his $124 billion net worth during his lifetime, the first time he's made such a promise. https://t.co/br4nQKVR3n pic.twitter.com/puR4MFOAAo

— CNN International (@cnni) November 14, 2022

Recent updates reveal that Bezos awarded songwriter and performer Dolly Parton $100 million to give to whatever charities she chooses.

We’ve just announced a new Courage and Civility award recipient — @DollyParton, who leads with her heart, and will put this $100 million award to great use helping so many people. She joins prior awardees, @VanJones68 and @Chefjoseandres. Congrats, Dolly! pic.twitter.com/dzTuoGVp3G

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) November 12, 2022

Bezos received backlash in 2010 after he refused to sign the Giving Pledge, a campaign launched by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates for the wealthiest individuals to dedicate the majority of their fortune to charitable causes. 

Hundreds of billionaires have signed the pledge, including Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Bezos’ ex-wife Mackenzie Bezos.

Several critics of the campaign argue that the Pledge is merely a public promise that the rich would give away their fortune.

Moreover, Gates and Buffett have both become much wealthier than when they made their pledge.

For instance, Bill Gates pledged to donate his fortune in 2010, when his net worth was $53 billion. By 2020, it was $115 billion.

Read more: World's 10 richest men doubled their wealth during pandemic

At a time when Amazon founder is promising to give away most of his wealth for charity, The New York Times revealed earlier today that Amazon was planning to cut about 10,000 jobs mainly in corporate and technology roles beginning this week, including retail, human resources, and devices organization.

According to the report, the company which is composed of 1.5 million employees worldwide, plans to cut about 3% of its corporate employees and 1% of its global employees. 

The news comes just a week after Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of META, announced that the US tech giant will be laying off 13% of its workforce.

11,000 of Meta's staff will be cut in "the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history," said Zuckerberg on November 9.

On October 28, Bloomberg reported that Bezos' fortune could be nearly halved from its last year's record high as the forecast of the company's quarterly report triggered a strong drop in the value of its shares. 

On October 26, Amazon published a financial report that disappointed investors, and the fall in the value of its shares after the close of trading reached 21%. At the same time, in the first nine months of the current year, Amazon received a net loss of $3 billion against a profit of $19.041 billion for last year's same period. According to the results of the third quarter, Amazon's net profit decreased by 9% to $2.872 billion. 

If the drop continues at the close of today's trading, Bezos' fortune will automatically fall by $23 billion to $111 billion, according to Bloomberg. This is almost twice less than in July 2021, when his fortune reached $214 billion. 

 
Since this year's beginning, Bezos has lost more than $58 billion, while on Thursday alone, he lost nearly $5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI).
 
Bezos, Forbes says, was for four years the wealthiest person in the world, but in the April ranking, Elon Musk replaced him. Today, both Forbes Real-Time and BBI say he is the third richest man after Musk and Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy owner Bernard Arnault.

Read more: FP: US elimination of Huawei, ZTE technologies is unsustainable