Jeff Bezos, who helmed Amazon from an online book retailer to a global behemoth richer than some nation-states, said he will step down as CEO in 2021. The announcement comes amid the high of Amazon posting quarterly sales above $100 billion for the first time in the company's history. It is expected that Andy Jassy, head of Amazon's lucrative cloud sector Amazon Web Services (AWS), will take over the reins. Over the past two years, AWS has grown close to 40 per cent and 30 per cent, making massive inroads in web hosting by beating out competition like Microsoft's Azure and Google Cloud.
Bezos, who has an engineering degree from Princeton University, started Amazon with his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott—they first settled in Seattle. His stake in Amazon is currently worth about $180 billion.
According to an email sent by Bezos to Amazon employees, as accessed by CNN:
I am excited to announce that this Q3, I'll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence.
This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name. The question I was asked most frequently at that time was, "What's the internet?" Blessedly, I haven't had to explain that in a long while.
Today, we employ 1.3 million talented, dedicated people, serve hundreds of millions of customers and businesses, and are widely recognized as one of the most successful companies in the world.
How did that happen? Invention. Invention is the root of our success. We've done crazy things together, and then made them normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalised recommendations, Prime's insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more. If you get it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. And that yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive.
What will Bezos do next?
In the email, Bezos said he will remain focused as executive chair on projects like the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post.
Day 1 Fund: Bezos's Day One Fund, with a $2 billion commitment, will focus on "making meaningful and lasting impacts" in two areas: funding existing non-profits that help families experiencing homelessness, and creating a network of new, non-profit tier-one preschools in low-income communities.
Earth Fund: The Bezos Earth Fund seeks to accelerate the transition to 100 per cent clean energy and equitable access to healthy air, water, and land, and has a $10 billion fund to counter climate change.
Blue Origin: Bezos' space company aims to make access to space cheaper with reusable launch vehicles. The company is currently testing rocket systems, as well as a moon lander called Blue Moon, with a first mission planned in 2024.
The Washington Post: Bezos had purchased The Washington Post newspaper for a reported $250m. The highly venerated publication had been owned by the Graham family for 80 years.
-Inputs from agencies
