Key Points
- Jeff Bezos says he plans to give away most of his $185 billion fortune during his lifetime
- The Amazon founder is the latest billionaire to make such a pledge.
- He hasn't specified how or to whom he will give away the money.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to give away most of his wealth, becoming the latest billionaire to pledge to donate much of his vast fortune.
Mr Bezos, whose "real-time" worth Forbes magazine estimates at roughly US$124.1 billion ($185.3 billion), made the announcement in a joint CNN interview with his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez that was released on Monday.
didn't specify how or to whom he will give away the money but said the couple was building the "capacity" to do it.
"The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way," Mr Bezos said during the interview.
"It's not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work and very smart teammates. And I'm finding - and Lauren's finding - that philanthropy is very similar. It's not easy. It's really hard."
Just hours after the announcement, reports emerged that Amazon planned to lay off around 10,000 staff in corporate and technology roles, beginning this week.
The cuts, reported by the New York Times, would represent about 3 per cent of Amazon's corporate staff, and would amount to its biggest such reduction to date.
While is more than double the national rate, the company has in recent years faced increasing activism and criticism over its working conditions.
Labour groups and Amazon staff have claimed that the company doesn't offer its hourly employees enough break times, puts too much reliance on rigid productivity metrics, has unsafe working conditions and has blocked efforts to unionise workers.
for not signing the Giving Pledge, the campaign launched by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth through philanthropy.
The 58-year-old stepped down as Amazon CEO last year to devote more time to philanthropy and other projects. as part of his Bezos Earth Fund initiative. And according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, he gave US$510.7 million ($762.4 million) to non-profits last year.
On Saturday, Mr Bezos and Ms Sanchez also announced a no-strings-attached US$100 million ($149 million) grant to singer Dolly Parton, who's been praised for her philanthropic work that . Mr Bezos had given a similar grant to chef José Andrés and CNN commentator Van Jones last year.
