Amazon founder pledges $10 billion to fight climate change

Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon, announced the creation of the Bezos Earth Fund.

Bezos wrote on Instagram that he would initially invest $10 billion in the fund. By the summer of 2020, this money should be allocated in the form of grants to scientists, activists and public organizations working on climate change issues.

“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet. The earth is what unites us all, let's protect it together,” wrote the head of Amazon.

Before the announcement of the foundation, Jeff Bezos's largest donation was two billion dollars aimed at supporting poor families and developing education in 2018. According to Forbes , Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world, with a net worth of approximately $130 billion.

In Russia, billionaires invest less than 1% of their wealth in charity, while this is a more common practice abroad. In 2020, Microsoft founder Bill Gates allocated $10 million to fight coronavirus, and in 2017 he invested $100 million for Alzheimer's disease research.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged to donate three billion dollars of their personal funds to research aimed at combating all existing diseases. Microsoft has allocated $25 million to create artificial intelligence that can make life easier for people with disabilities.