Jeff Bezos has so much money he doesn’t know what to do with it all, so he figures he’d might as well spend it on spaceships.
That’s what the Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +1.03% founder and chief executive told Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Business Insider parent Axel Springer, in an interview published over the weekend.
The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is basically it.”
– Jeff Bezos
Bezos is worth about $131 billion, according to Forbes’ latest calculations.
And while those billions were largely built on e-commerce and cloud computing, Bezos told Döpfner that his space company, Blue Origin, is his most important work.
“I’m pursuing this work, because I believe if we don’t we will eventually end up with a civilization of stasis, which I find very demoralizing,” he said about his goals of space exploration — and eventually colonization. “I am very lucky that I feel like I have a mission-driven purpose with Blue Origin that is, I think, incredibly important for civilization long term. And I am going to use my financial lottery winnings from Amazon to fund that.”
Bezos said he’s spending about $1 billion a year to fund Blue Origin.
But while Bezos did mention philanthropic efforts, such as combating homelessness, many on social media found his priorities to be lacking — especially when compared to fellow Seattle-area billionaire Bill Gates, who has pledged to give away the bulk of his fortune and has already donated more than $40 billion through his foundation. Some noted Bezos could use his massive wealth to fight hunger, improve Amazon workers’ salaries or pay his full share of taxes.
To be sure, Bezos is not shooting all his money into space. Last year, Bezos made his first large philanthropic donation — $35 million to fund cancer research. Last June he also asked for suggestions on what causes he could donate to that would help “people in the here and now — short term,” and in response pledged $33 million for scholarships for so-called “Dreamers.”
