Jeff Bezos thinks his fortune is best spent in space

Jeff Bezos thinks his fortune(ˈfôrCHən) is best spent in space

Critics(ˈkritik) offer suggestions on how his wealth(welTH) can be better spent closer to home.

By Mike Murphy

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(ˈspā(s)ˌSHip).

That’s what the Amazon.com Inc.(inˈkôrpəˌrātid) AMZN, +0.15% founder and chief executive(eg-,igˈzekyətiv) told Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Business Insider parent Axel Springer, in an interview(ˈintərˌvyo͞o) published over the weekend.

Bezos is worth about $131 billion, according to Forbes’ latest calculations(ˌkalkyəˈlāSHən).

And while those billions were largely built on e-commerce(ˈēˌkämərs) and cloud computing, Bezos told Döpfner that his space company, Blue Origin(ˈôrəjən), is his most important work.

“I’m pursuing(pərˈso͞o) this work, because I believe if we don’t we will eventually end up with a civilization(ˌsivələˈzāSHən) of stasis(ˈstāsis), which I find very demoralizing(diˈmôrəˌlīz),” 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(inˈkredəblē) important for civilization long term. And I am going to use my financial(fī-,fəˈnanCHəl) lottery(ˈlätərē) 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(ˌfilənˈTHräpik) efforts, such as combating(ī) homelessness, many on social media found his priorities to be lacking — especially when compared to fellow(ˈfelō) Seattle(sēˈatl)-area billionaire(ˈbilyəˌne(ə)r) Bill Gates, who has pledged(plej) to give away the bulk(bəlk) of his fortune and has already donated(dōˈnāt,ˈdōnāt) more than $40 billion through his foundation.

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https://www.marketwatch.com/story/jeff-bezos-thinks-his-fortune-is-best-spent-in-space-2018-05-01