The Billionaires Who Made Our World: Jeff Bezos | BBC Select

Sep 26, 2023 | The transformation of Jeff Bezos has been extraordinary. He leads a life of luxury and glamor while vying with Elon Musk as one of the planet’s richest men. But Bezos wasn't always so glamorous. This revealing documentary charts his rise from computer geek to ruthless businessman, building Amazon into one of the world's biggest corporations. But who is the real Bezos and what drives his ambition?

Stream the full story with The Billionaires Who Made Our World on BBC Select here.

U.S. Accuses Amazon of Illegally Protecting Monopoly in Online Retail: The Federal Trade Commission and 17 states sued Amazon, saying its conduct in its online store and services to merchants illegally stifled competition. »

Prime Power: How Amazon Squeezes the Businesses Behind Its Store: Twenty years ago, Amazon opened its storefront to anyone who wanted to sell something. Then it began demanding more out of them. »

MacKenzie Scott Reveals Details of Her $14bn in Donations to 1,600 Non-profits

THE GUARDIAN: Billionaire whose wealth largely comes from her divorce from Jeff Bezos has signed pledge promising to give away over half

MacKenzie Scott has not given any interviews about her donations, opting to discuss her reasons in essays posted on Medium and now on Yield Giving. Photograph: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
The billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s donations have yielded more than $14bn for about 1,600 non-profits since 2019, according to her new website Yield Giving, which was unveiled on Wednesday night.

Scott’s wealth largely comes from her divorce from the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. She has signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away more than half. Forbes currently estimates her net worth at $27bn.

Scott has not given any interviews about her donations, opting to discuss her reasons in essays posted on Medium and now on Yield Giving.

Until now, Scott and her team secretly contacted organizations they were interested in, then offered donations after receiving data. On Wednesday, Scott announced plans to introduce an “open-call process”, to allow non-profits to send information for evaluation. » | Associated Press in New York | Thursday, December 15, 2022

Yield Giving.

Jeff Bezos Vows to Give Away Most of Fortune – and Hands Dolly Parton $100m

THE GUARDIAN: Amazon founder wants to donate much of $124bn wealth to causes such as climate crisis and world unity

Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos has not said what proportion of his fortune is likely to go to philanthropy. Photograph: John Locher/AP
Jeff Bezos has promised to give away the vast majority of his $124bn (£110bn) fortune during his lifetime, but admitted that ensuring that the most worthy causes benefit is proving as difficult as building his Amazon empire.

The 58-year-old, the world’s fourth richest person, according to Forbes billionaires list, made the pledge after giving $100m to the country singer Dolly Parton to give to charities of her choice as part of Bezos’s annual Courage and Civility award. » | Mark Sweney | Monday, November 14, 2022

Bernie Sanders ; How Much Money Does Jeff Bezos Really Need?

Apr 28, 2022 • If you’re worth $170 billion, who gives a damn about putting a few more dollars into workers' pockets? Mr. Bezos, I ask you sincerely: How much money do you need? When is 'enough' enough?\

Bernie Sanders.

Jeff Bezos Recruits in Quest for Eternal Youth

THE TIMES: The Amazon founder is backing a venture to extend the prime of life, write Rhys Blakely and Louisa Clarence-Smith

Altos Labs, which is backed by Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner, has hired GSK’s chief executive Hal Barron along with a slew of Nobel prize-winners
An effort to vanquish death moved up a gear yesterday as a new “anti-ageing” company backed by Jeff Bezos revealed it had recruited one of the world’s most respected scientists.

The venture, called Altos Labs, has poached Hal Barron, 59, to be its chief executive. He had previously been chief scientific officer for the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.

That alone would have secured Altos credibility — but the biotech start-up also revealed $3 billion in funding yesterday, as well as a board of directors brimming with Nobel laureates.

Its focus will be on “cellular programming”, a technique that can already be used to rejuvenate individual cells in a laboratory — and that some believe holds the key to prolonging human life by banishing diseases associated with … » | Rhys Blakely, Science Correspondent | Louisa Clarence-Smith | Thursday, January 20, 2022 [£]

Why Jeff Bezos’ Space Dream Is Humanity's Nightmare | George Monbiot

Manche Leute sehen wahnsinnig gut aus. Andere Leute haben unerhört guten Geschmack. Dann gibt es Leute, die so viel Geld haben, daß das Geld gar nicht gezählt werden kann. Die Glücklichsten davon, natürlich, haben alle drei Eigenschaften: Aussehen, Geschmack und Reichtum. Mich wundert, wo Jeff Bezos steht. Haben Sie, vielleicht, eine bessere Ahnung? – © Mark

Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos | Full Film | FRONTLINE

Feb 19, 2020 • An inside look at how Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos built one of the largest and most influential economic forces in the world — and the cost of Amazon’s convenience.

Billionaires Fight to Privatize & Monopolize Space Infrastructure as Earth Burns & Workers Organize

Jul 22, 2021 • As the world’s richest man flies his Blue Origin rocket into suborbital space, here on Earth calls are growing to tax the rich and let Amazon unionize. Billionaire Jeff Bezos has faced strong criticism after Tuesday’s flight, for which he thanked Amazon workers and customers who “paid for all of this.” Bezos traveled to the edge of space just days after another billionaire, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, took a similar trip on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft. “The richest and most powerful people in the world are turning their eyes away from the planet and to the stars,” says Paris Marx, a writer and host of the podcast “Tech Won’t Save Us.” “We need to question whether we should be dedicating so much resources to this kind of grand vision of a future that may never arrive,” Marx says. We also speak with journalist Peter Ward, author of the book “The Consequential Frontier: Challenging the Privatization of Space,” who says billionaires who have monopolized large sectors of the economy are seeking to do the same for space infrastructure. “It’s not the worst thing to have the private sector involved. It’s just it can’t be where they have complete control,” Ward says.

Elizabeth Warren schimpft über Jeff Bezos

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: „Jeff Bezos hat Amerikaner vergessen, die Steuern gezahlt haben“

Jeff Bezos‘ Ausflug ins All hat nicht allen gefallen. In sozialen Medien wurde der Amazon-Gründer nach der Rückkehr seiner Raumkapsel New Shepard am Dienstag als betriebsblind verurteilt, weil er sich bei den Angestellten und Kunden des Online-Händlers dafür bedankte, seine Reise in den Weltraum bezahlt zu haben. Während des ersten Corona-Jahres 2020 war Bezos wiederholt wegen der Arbeitsbedingungen bei Amazon kritisiert worden. In den vergangenen Monaten wurde zudem Kritik an Steuerbefreiungen für das Unternehmen laut. „Jeff Bezos hat vergessen, den hart arbeitenden Amerikanern zu danken, die tatsächlich Steuern gezahlt haben, um das Land am Laufen zu halten“, wetterte auch Elizabeth Warren, Senatorin und frühere Präsidentschaftsbewerberin der Demokraten. Weiter lesen / Neues von den Promis » | FAZ Small Talk | Mittwoch, 21. Juli 2021

Petition Urges Jeff Bezos to Blast into Space – and Stay There

THE GUARDIAN: Change.org effort has gathered tens of thousands of signatures / Bezos to go into space in July on first human Blue Origin flight

A growing group of earthlings is banding together in an effort to keep Jeff Bezos off the planet, after he leaves it in late July.

By Monday morning, more than 77,000 had signed a petition on Change.org demanding the Amazon founder be kept from returning to Earth after participating in the first human space flight launched by his company Blue Origin.

“Billionaire’s [sic] should not exist … on earth, or in space, but should they decide the latter they should stay there,” read the description accompanying the petition, which was addressed “to the proletariat”.

In May, Bezos was named the second-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $186bn. » | Sarah Betancourt | Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Sign the petition

Sold! Bidder pays $28m for spare seat on space flight with Jeff Bezos »

Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon Chief Executive

BBC: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is to step down as chief executive of the e-commerce giant that he founded in his garage nearly 30 years ago.

He will become executive chairman, a move he said would give him "time and energy" to focus on his other ventures.

Mr Bezos, the world's richest man, will be replaced by Andy Jassy, who currently leads Amazon's cloud computing business.

The change will take place in the second half of 2021, the company said.

"Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it's consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it's hard to put attention on anything else," Mr Bezos said in an [sic] letter to Amazon staff on Tuesday.

"As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions."

"I've never had more energy, and this isn't about retiring. I'm super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have," he added. » | BBC | Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Amazon, Jeff Bezos and Collecting Data | DW Documentary

No company stores more data than Amazon, the former online bookseller. Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has become the richest man in the world. Every second Euro in online trading is spent at Amazon. Is the IT giant, with its unabated growth, about to turn our economic system upside down?

Amazon is a machine that can simultaneously observe, compare and analyze more than 300 million people worldwide. The company is not just a marketplace, market supervisor and provider of more and more services and consumer items - it also controls all the data streams in this market and uses them to its own benefit. Who suspects that a single click on an Amazon page will forward information to the company that fills a printed DIN-A-4 page? A conversation with Alexa, watching a streaming offer on Amazon-Prime, ordering vegetables via Amazon-Fresh - all this put together creates a whole library of information about every customer. The group collects everything - it just won’t reveal what conclusions it draws from it. What would be possible if data from other, new business areas were added? In the USA, Amazon is also active in the health and insurance sectors, and police officers are using its facial recognition software to search for wanted persons.

Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos (Full Film) | FRONTLINE

An inside look at how Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos built one of the largest and most influential economic forces in the world — and the cost of Amazon’s convenience.

Khashoggi Murder: Western Powers Are 'Sending the Wrong Message' | UpFront (Special Interview)

Agnes Callamard, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, who has been investigating the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi recently co-authored a report that suggests Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) hacked a mobile phone belonging to Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and The Washington Post.

"I believe," Callamard said, "the hacking of Jeff Bezos is linked to a targeted campaign against dissidents and against anyone of strategic interest for information, communication, and public relations."

Since effectively taking control of Saudi Arabia, MBS has been ramping up the country's influence abroad. Khashoggi wrote critically about the de facto ruler for The Washington Post and in October 2018 was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Though the Saudi government has jailed and sentenced to death some of the individuals who carried out the killing, Callamard has dismissed the process as a "mockery of justice".

"The individuals that had been identified as having, at the minimum, planned and organised the killing, those individuals are walking free," Callamard explained.

Callamard laments the response by countries in the West. In the US, where Khashoggi was a resident, President Donald Trump has not been shy in expressing his admiration for MBS, saying he would be a "fool" not to conduct business with the kingdom.

"So far, the governments of the United States, of France, of the UK, have been unwilling to challenge the crown prince for his behaviours, and by so doing, they are sending the wrong message," said Callamard.

This week's special interview is with the UN's Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, Agnes Callamard.

Saudi Arabia Hit with Lawsuit for Role in 9/11 Attacks & Bezos Claims Unfair Bias by Government

Via America’s Lawyer: Mike Papantonio and Trial Lawyer Magazine editor Farron Cousins put the spotlight back on Saudi Arabia, as over 25,000 9/11 victims and their families are filing suit against the Saudi government for its complicity in funding terrorist organizations. Plus, Amazon is accusing the Pentagon of improperly awarding its highly-coveted $10 billion JEDI cloud contract to Microsoft, alleging the decision was based on President Trump’s bias against Jeff Bezos. Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss more.

Did Saudi Arabia Intentionally Hack Jeff Bezos' Phone? | Morning Joe | MSNBC

The Bezos' investigation 'concluded with high confidence' that Saudi Arabia had access to the Amazon CEO's phone and had gained private information, according to Bezos' investigator in a new Daily Beast article.

Glenn Greenwald: As Bezos Protests Invasion of His Privacy, Amazon Builds Global Surveillance State

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is publicly accusing the owner of the National Enquirer of “extortion and blackmail,” weeks after the paper revealed details about his extramarital affair. Bezos had recently hired a private investigator to determine how the tabloid newspaper obtained private text messages between him and his lover, and whether the paper’s actions were politically motivated. The National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, Inc., responded to Bezos’s investigation by threatening to publish revealing photos of Bezos if he did not agree to publicly state that the Enquirer’s coverage was not politically motivated or influenced by political forces. We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald about the dispute and Amazon’s role in building the surveillance state.

Jeff Bezos’ Extortion Claim And The ‘Saudi Angle’ | The Last Word | MSNBC

Trump ally David Pecker could lose his immunity deal as federal prosecutors investigate whether AMI violated its non-prosecution agreement by trying to blackmail Jeff Bezos. A new report by the Daily Beast details the inner workings of the National Enquirer's "blackmail machine." Ari Melber discusses the new details with Noah Shachtman, Jonathan Alter and Nicholas Kristof.

With Jeff Bezos, Has 'The Enquirer' Messed With The Wrong Guy? | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos accused the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., of 'extortion and blackmail' on Thursday for threatening to publish photographs from his personal life. The Morning Joe panel digs into the story.