Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion for climate change. With the 2030 clock ticking, his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, is leading the charge to spend it

In 2020, Jeff Bezos made what remains the largest individual philanthropic commitment to climate and nature ever: $10 billion, to be fully disbursed by 2030 through the Bezos Earth Fund. 

But five years in, the fund has deployed roughly $2.4 billion of that commitment, leaving about $7 billion to go out the door before the 2020s end. Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who married Bezos last summer, is now the person setting the pace at the Bezos Earth Fund as vice chair, a position she’s held since the fund’s early days, when she was just his girlfriend. 

During the past year, Sánchez Bezos, who is also a New York Times bestselling author, founder, helicopter pilot, and Emmy Award–winning journalist, has become the more visible figure in the couple’s philanthropic orbit. In September 2025, she announced $37.5 million in grants to support marine protection across 12 Pacific Island nations and territories, part of a $100 million commitment to what the fund calls one of the boldest ocean conservation efforts ever attempted. 

“The Pacific isn’t just a beautiful backdrop, it’s a lifeline,” she said in a statement. “Pacific Island nations and territories are setting the pace. We’re here to match that ambition and help turn it into protection at scale.”

Then in October, she unveiled $30 million in Phase II awards for the fund’s AI Grand Challenge for Climate and Nature, a program that commits up to $100 million to AI-driven environmental solutions. 

“AI can be a powerful ally to help make the world a better place,” she said in a statement. “These innovators, using AI, are showing us new possibilities by reimagining how we grow food, protect wildlife, and power our planet to make a true impact.”

In addition to environmental philanthropic giving, Sánchez Bezos announced in December a $102.5 million commitment to organizations combating homelessness across the U.S. That commitment is part of the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, which has donated more than $850 million to organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam. Founded in 2018, the Day 1 Families Fund made a $2 billion commitment to support existing nonprofits helping families experiencing homelessness and to build and operate a network of new, tuition-free preschools in under-resourced communities.

“This is just the beginning,” Sánchez Bezos told Good Morning America. “It’s a $2 billion commitment … and we’re going to continue doing it.”

Weeks later, the couple awarded a $5 million grant and the Bezos Courage & Civility Award to David Flink, founder of the Neurodiversity Alliance—a cause with personal resonance for Sánchez Bezos, who grew up with undiagnosed dyslexia and has said her children’s book was written for “the 8-year-old me who was told I wasn’t smart.”

From food systems to nuclear energy, a $10 billion bet takes shape

The fund’s portfolio is sprawling, including $1 billion committed to transforming food and agriculture systems; $100 million awarded to the World Wildlife Fund for nature-based climate solutions; $110 million for habitat restoration and climate science; and a recent $4.8 million partnership with the Earthshot Prize to fund 48 climate innovation projects globally. In February, the fund announced a $3.5 million grant to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy. 

But the fund is also in transition. In July 2025, Bezos tapped former Amazon Alexa division head Tom Taylor to serve as the fund’s new CEO, replacing Andrew Steer, former head of an environmental think tank who had led the organization since 2021. The hire signaled a shift toward operational execution as the 2030 spend-down deadline approaches.

$4.7 billion in a lifetime vs. $7.2 billion in a year

Even with $10 billion committed to climate change, the scale of the Bezoses’ giving seems modest relative to the fortune behind it. 

Bezos’s net worth is currently estimated at $266 billion, making him the fourth-richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. But Forbes estimates the couple’s lifetime charitable contributions at about $4.7 billion, less than 2% of Bezos’s net worth. 

Meanwhile, Bezos’s ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, has been on a major giving spree during the past five years, having donated an eye-popping $26 billion to thousands of organizations. Her current net worth is estimated at $35.4 billion. That means she’s donated well over half of her net worth to charity, although her net worth continues to grow despite her massive donations, thanks to the power of Amazon shares that keep growing her fortune.

Another way to look at it is that, in 2025 alone, Scott donated $7.2 billion, which exceeds Bezos’s entire lifetime of charitable giving. Scott also signed the Giving Pledge, the commitment launched by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett in 2010 that encourages billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

Bezos has not signed it. In a 2022 CNN interview, he said he intends to give away the majority of his wealth during his lifetime but acknowledged the difficulty of doing so effectively. He even compared the difficulty of philanthropy to building Amazon, the No. 1 Fortune 500 company.

“It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy,” Bezos told CNN. “It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hardworking teammates, and I’m finding … that charity, philanthropy, is very similar.”

This story was originally published on Fortune.com on April 15, 2026.

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com