{"id":18373,"date":"2018-09-10T17:14:32","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T09:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/the-multibillion-dollar-question-what-in-the-world-or-universe-will-jeff-bezos-do-with-his-riches\/"},"modified":"2018-09-10T17:14:32","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T09:14:32","slug":"the-multibillion-dollar-question-what-in-the-world-or-universe-will-jeff-bezos-do-with-his-riches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/the-multibillion-dollar-question-what-in-the-world-or-universe-will-jeff-bezos-do-with-his-riches\/","title":{"rendered":"The multibillion-dollar question: What in the world (or universe) will Jeff Bezos do with his riches?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bezos\"
Jeff Bezos talks with students at the opening of the Apollo Exhibit at The Museum of Flight in Seattle in May 2017. One of Bezos\u2019 outside projects involved recovering the Apollo F-1 engines used to blast early astronauts to the moon. (GeekWire Photo \/ Kevin Lisota)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeff Bezos transformed the modern economy, using disruptive thinking to reshape how people buy products and read books, and how companies access computing and deliver goods.<\/p>\n

Now, the 54-year-old founder of Amazon and the Blue Origin space venture \u2014 a hard-charging sci-fi geek with a giant laugh who earlier this year earned the title of the richest person on the planet \u2014 is exploring new terrain: deciding how to give away a chunk of his record-breaking fortune, now estimated at a mind-boggling $160 billion as Amazon\u2019s market value topped $1 trillion for a short period this past week.<\/p>\n

The path Bezos chooses for his philanthropic efforts could alter society in unimagined ways, just as Andrew Carnegie did a century ago and as fellow Seattle billionaire Bill Gates is attempting to do today.<\/p>\n

And yet very few have direct insights into which issues the mercurial billionaire will tackle.<\/p>\n

Health care? Education? Climate change? Homelessness? Political reform?<\/p>\n

Societal and environmental challenges abound, and Bezos \u2014 with the wealth equivalent of the countries of Croatia, Costa Rica and Bolivia combined \u2014 can do something about them.<\/p>\n

<\/span> Jeff has changed the world once. In the fullness of time, he will change the world again multiple times.<\/span><\/p>\n

This much is certain: reflecting on Bezos\u2019 past moves, his philanthropic efforts will be unconventional.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeff has changed the world once,\u201d said Ed Lazowska, a professor in the University of Washington\u2019s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, which Bezos and Amazon have supported through donations and endowments. \u201cIn the fullness of time, he will change the world again multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n

For years, Bezos was a relative no-show when it came to philanthropy. The Bezos name was associated with a scant number of charitable causes around his adopted hometown of Seattle, and few in the non-profit world knew where he stood on do-gooding causes.<\/p>\n

But things started to change last summer \u2014 in a potentially big way.<\/p>\n

On June 15, 2017 Bezos turned the philanthropic world on its head, issuing a tweet soliciting suggestions for his charitable giving.<\/p>\n