Amazon's Jeff Bezos Wants Recognition Beyond Personal Wealth. Here's How Much He Has Created for Others

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people in the world, is tired of being looked at as rich. Speaking at the New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday, Bezos said there should be a list that ranks people based on how much wealth they have created for others rather than generated for themselves. He said he wants to be looked at as someone who has rewarded his investors in return for their trust in him and his consumer giant.

“Somebody needs to make a list where they rank people by how much wealth they’ve created for other people instead of the Forbes list that ranks you by your own wealth,” said Bezos at the summit. “Then I’ve created something like $2.1 trillion in wealth for other people. That should put me pretty high on some kind of list—and that’s a better list,” he added. 

The 60-year-old billionaire, who has a net worth of $234.9 billion, according to Forbes as of December 6, wants to be judged and ranked for his products and services and not his wealth. 

“If I could somehow have a Forbes list of inventors, and if I could climb my way to the top of that inventor list, that’s what would make me happy, then I would be understood-at least in part,” said Bezos. 

Jeff Bezos vs Donald Trump 

Bezos, who had fought with Donald Trump in his first term as President (2016-2020) over Amazon’s tax payments, said he feels hopeful about his second term. Speaking at the same event, the Amazon founder appreciated Trump’s initiative of setting up the department of efficiency under Elon Musk’s leadership to deregulate and reduce costs. 

“I’m very hopeful—he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation...and my point of view is, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him, because we do have too much regulation in this country,” said the billionaire. 

Trump, during his presidency in his first term, had accused Amazon of rendering “fully-tax paying retailers” out of business. 

“I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!,” said Trump in a post on X in 2018.