Bezos announces plans to donate fortune hours before mass job cut rumours at Amazon

Jeff Bezos made an announcement about his $185 billion fortune hours before rumours emerged that 10,000 workers were about to lose their jobs.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ha announced that he will give away most of his $US124 billion ($A185 billion) fortune during his lifetime.

On Monday, Mr Bezos, the world’s fourth richest person revealed to CNN Business that he intends to hand over his cash to organisations fighting climate change and promoting unity.

However, some critics pointed out that the timing of his announcement couldn’t be worse.

Just hours later, reports emerged that Amazon was about to cut 10,000 jobs.

Jeff Bezos has pledged his fortune to charity. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

Speaking alongside his philanthropist partner Lauren Sanchez, he said he was “building the capacity to be able to give away this money”.

Bezos has not revealed how much he plans to donate.

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

“It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hardworking teammates, and I’m finding – and I think Lauren is finding the same thing – that charity, philanthropy, is very similar.

“There are a bunch of ways that I think you could do ineffective things, too. So you have to think about it carefully and you have to have brilliant people on the team.”

Investor Warren Buffett, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Mr Bezos’s ex-wife MacKenzie Scott have all already promised to donate their money away to charity.

Hours after his philanthropic announcement, insiders revealed Amazon was bracing for mass job cuts. Picture: Eric Baradat/AFP

But just hours later, The New York Times reported that Amazon plans to scrap 10,000 roles from the company.

If correct, it would be the largest job cut in Amazon’s history.

Were 10,000 employees to be laid off, that would represent roughly 3 per cent of the e-commerce company’s corporate workers.

However, overall it’s less than 1 per cent of its global workforce, which is made up of more than 1.5 million people.

Head office positions will be the ones mostly getting the chop, including corporate and technology positions.

The job cuts could begin as early as this week, according to the publication.

Amazon has 1.5 million workers worldwide. Pictures: Daniel Leal/AFP

An Amazon Fulfilment Centre.

Mr Bezos has previously made headlines for his penny-pinching behaviour.

A damning leak from the Internal Revenue Service – America’s tax collection agency – revealed the billionaire paid no income tax in 2007 and 2011.

Last year, it came to light that Amazon workers, particularly delivery drivers, reportedly peed in bottles and defecated in bags as they didn’t have enough time to go to the toilet.

And data released by the US Government’s Accountability Office in 2021 found more than 4000 workers in Amazon’s fulfilment centres across America rely on food stamps to survive.

The federal program gives grocery vouchers to low- and no-income Americans and wasn’t designed for people who work substantive jobs.

Seventy per cent of those Amazon workers on food stamps are full-time employees.

They are reportedly paid $15 per hour.

In mid-2021, Mr Bezos launched into space on his multibillion-dollar company Blue Origin’s maiden passenger flight.

“I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all of this,” he said after landing.

Those words prompted outrage from Amazon staff.

Originally published as Bezos announces plans to donate fortune hours before mass job cut rumours at Amazon