Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez.Credit:AP

“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way,” 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.”

Bezos,who’s worth $US123.9 billion ($185 billion),according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index,said in the interview that he’s also anticipating a recession and that his advice to small businesses is to hunker down and cut expenses.

“The economy does not look great right now,” he said,sitting alongside his partner Lauren Sanchez. “Things are slowing down. You’re seeing lay offs in many many sectors of the economy.”

Amazon’s own job cuts will primarily hit employees in corporate and technology positions and could start as early as this week,theNew York Times reported Monday,citing people familiar with the matter that it didn’t identify. It would be the largest number of staff cuts in the company’s history.

Chief executive officer Andy Jassy has vowed to streamline operations amid slowing sales growth and economic uncertainty. Last month,the Seattle-based company predicted that the holiday sales period would be the slowest in its history,spooking Wall Street and tanking the shares.

This isn’t the first time Bezos has timed a big philanthropic announcement around a period of controversy. Last year,he sandwiched his 11-minute trip to the edge of space,which attracted criticism over his priorities,with news of hundreds of millions of dollars in gifts,including $US200 million to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Bezos,58,has focused more attention on his philanthropy in recent years as he’s also assumed a much larger public role,acquiring theWashington Post newspaper in 2013 as well as luxury homes in New York,Los Angeles and Hawaii. A $US500 million yacht he commissioned is under construction in the Netherlands,and he’s among those interested in bidding for the NFL’s Washington Commanders,possibly with music mogul Jay-Z as an investor.

For years Bezos largely stayed on the philanthropy sidelines and drew criticism for not signing the Giving Pledge,a promise by many of the world’s richest people to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes. Instead he focused on Amazon and funded Blue Origin,his for-profit space-exploration company.

The reported job cuts would be the largest in Amazon’s history.Credit:AP

Climate Change

But Bezos has increased the pace of his giving after stepping down as Amazon’s chief executive officer last year. He set his attention on climate change with his $US10 billion Earth Fund,which also aims to help restore nature and transform food systems. Bezos has said he plans to distribute the $US10 billion by 2030.

On Saturday,Bezos named Dolly Parton the latest recipient of his Courage and Civility award,handing the music legend $US100 million to direct to any charities she chooses. He previously awarded similar amounts to chef Jose Andres,whose World Central Kitchen feeds people in disaster-stricken areas,and Van Jones,the founder of Dream.Org.

His ex-wife MacKenzie Scott has sent more than $US14 billion to nonprofits since the two split in 2019,mostly focusing on smaller charities in the US that are often overlooked by larger donors. In a blog post just hours after Bezos’sCNN interview aired,Scott – who signed the Giving Pledge –said she donated almost $US2 billion to charities over the past seven months.

Bloomberg

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