(Bloomberg) -- Jeff Bezos is stepping back as chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc. at a time when the company’s share price -- and his personal wealth -- are both near all-time highs.
Bezos is worth $197 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the highest his fortune has been this year. He’s the second-richest person in the world, trailing only Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk.
Bezos’s fortune has almost doubled since he topped the $100 billion mark in late 2017, even after ceding a quarter of his Amazon stake to ex-wife MacKenzie Scott in a divorce in 2019. Last February, he committed $10 billion to issues related to climate change and in November announced the first of those grants, totaling nearly $800 million to 16 groups. He also disclosed another round of grants for his Day One Fund, giving away more than $100 million to 42 organizations that combat family homelessness.
Bezos, 57, who’ll continue as Amazon’s executive chairman, said in an email to employees that he intends to spend more time on philanthropy and his other companies, including Blue Origin and the Washington Post.
“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring,” he wrote.
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