Just days from stepping down from his long-held position as Amazon’s CEO, the famous-or-infamous Jeff Bezos has earmarked a $200mn donation to the Smithsonian Institution for its National Air and Space Museum, the organization has announced.

• The gift from Bezos comes a few days before his scheduled trip to the edges of outer space onboard a rocket made by Blue Origin, his aerospace company. Digging into his estimated $210bn net worth, a $200mn gift isn’t out-of-the-blue for Bezos, especially as he sold over $12bn of Amazon shares from 2020 till now.

• Bezos’ $200mn donation to the Smithsonian is the largest gift to the organization since its founding gift from James Smithson in 1846. From it, $70mn will be earmarked to support the renovation of the National Air and Space Museum and $130 million to launch a new education center at the museum.

• Bezos has a past history of supporting the Smithsonian though his latest donation represents his biggest support yet for the organization. Before now, he was a founding donor to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

• It kind of makes sense that Bezos is funding the National Air and Space Museum as he’s beginning to take up space tourism. The infamous Amazon founder has had a major interest in space affairs since back in the 2000s when he founded Blue Origin.

• Bezos’ donation tops up a smaller $10mn donation to the Smithsonian that a fellow billionaire like him, Ken Griffin, made this May. 

• “This historic gift will help the Smithsonian achieve its goal of reaching every classroom in America by creating a world-class learning center with access and inspiration at its heart,” Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch said.

Photo credit: Insider Monkey

Share this...

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Linkedin

Whatsapp

Email

Print