I also would push back on the idea that this is a "goodwill move". He dumped $2b in homelessness issues and it did nothing to move the needle on his likability. If anything it seemed to give him a lot of bad press and coverage. It seems more likely that he is either a) thinking about his long term legacy (a la Bill Gates), or b) he may (gasp) actually care about this issue.

Amazon seems to be pursuing the green agendas they set out last year, so I think it's plausible he really cares about this issue.

It's a huge initial endowment for sure. It would be a little more fair to include the other $50 billion the Gates Foundation has already given (ie they're up around $100 billion so far, with perhaps another $250 billion yet to come).

The Gates Foundation has ~$45-$50 billion in assets currently and has given away more than $50 billion thus far (~$23 billion of that giving is from Warren Buffett's contributions; Buffett's donations have to be used rapidly after they're given to the foundation (within the year or such if I recall), that money isn't allowed to pile up). The foundation as it's known today - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - got started with $16 billion in 1999/2000.

Gates + Buffett = $210 billion currently. Due to the Buffett money pouring in, they basically can't give it all away as fast as Bill & Melinda had originally planned, so they're likely going to miss their timeline for giving the Gates fortune away (in their lifetimes was the first goal; that shifted to now being within 20 years after their passing).

Thanks! Those are some really interesting numbers.

$210 billion in cash?