Jeff Bezos and his then-wife MacKenzie Scott were among the pillars that shaped Amazon. They may no longer be together, but they remain connected through the company, which today has a market cap of $2.79 trillion. In 1994, Bezos founded Amazon in a rented garage, with Scott becoming one of the company’s earliest employees. Today, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sits on a fortune of around $280 billion, making him the world’s third-richest man. Scott, on the other hand, is one of the world’s leading philanthropists, with a fortune of nearly $34 billion. There is a vast difference in their net worths today, and that difference extends to their approaches to charity, although not in the way one might expect.
According to SEC filings analysed by Luxurylaunches, the 62-year-old tech tycoon owns 879.74 million Amazon shares, while Scott received approximately 139 million shares, representing roughly a 4% stake in Amazon, as part of their 2019 divorce settlement. Still, when it comes to giving, the billionaire behind the Bezos Earth Fund has parted with a much smaller proportion of his fortune than Scott, who has already disposed of more than 75% of the Amazon shares she received.
Of course, Scott is setting a precedent that has rarely, if ever, been witnessed at this scale, even as some have questioned aspects of her unconventional approach to philanthropy. But the fact remains that both billionaires intend to give away significant portions of their fortunes, and so far, only one appears to be doing it at breakneck speed.
So far, the author has given away almost $27 billion to more than 2,500 organizations. Thanks in part to the formidable value of her Amazon shares, Scott remains in a remarkably strong financial position to continue her mission without hitting the brakes. It is fair to say Bezos, too, is doing his bit, but not with the speed or scale of Scott.
The owner of the $500 million Koru yacht announced a $10 billion commitment to the Bezos Earth Fund in 2020, and so far the Earth Fund has actually distributed about $2.4 billion. Going by the extraordinary wealth both continue to command, Bezos could certainly have donated considerably more while still maintaining his position among the world’s five richest people. The proof, to some extent, lies in MacKenzie Scott’s remarkably resilient net worth.
When the couple divorced in 2019, Scott’s net worth immediately rose to between $36 billion and $38 billion. Today, even after giving away tens of billions of dollars, she remains in roughly the same league, with a fortune of around $34 billion. The unstoppable Scott gave away $7.2 billion in 2025 alone. That is about $2.5 billion more than Forbes calculates Bezos and Sánchez Bezos have donated over their entire lifetimes. It is therefore remarkable that Bezos, despite being worth about eight times as much and holding considerably more Amazon stock, has seen Scott donate roughly five times more money. The power of money is indeed most clearly shown when it is given away, and here Scott seems to be leading by quite a margin.
