The founder and CEO of Amazon will leave his CEO role to become executive chair of the company. Andy Jassy, the chief executive of Amazon Web Services, will take his place.

Big Changes On The Horizon For Amazon

Earlier this week, Jeff Bezos revealed that he would leave his position as chief executive of Amazon in the third quarter of the year. He will then move to the role of executive chair.

It will be Andy Jassy, the chief executive of Amazon Web Services, to step in as CEO of the company. As Bezos wrote to his employees, this change will give him "the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions."

It is not clear yet how and if this change will affect Bezos' involvement in Amazon. As executive chair, he might still be very active in making important decisions. Brian Olsavsky, the chief financial officer of the company, stated:

"I will reiterate [Jeff Bezos] is not leaving. He's going to be executive chairman, super important role, super active in the Amazon success story."

Some big names in the tech world sent their congratulations. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, tweeted:

"Congrats @JeffBezos, best wishes for Day 1 and Earth fund".

A Long Story Of Business Success

Amazon started in 1994 when Jeff Bezos created it as an online bookstore. Since then, it built up to become one of the largest companies in the world, with a value of $1.7 trillion.

The entrepreneur has fond memories of that time. Sharing stories about the beginning of his career, he said:

"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."

Because of the pandemic, the company grew even more in 2020 and almost doubled its yearly income. Bezos recently lost his place as the richest man in the world to Elon Musk but is still one of the wealthiest people on the planet.

However, his story of success is not without shades. Amazon's competition practices have raised suspects in antitrust authorities both in the U.S. and in Europe.

The Future Of Amazon And Jeff Bezos

Future Amazon CEO Andy Jessy has been working for the company since 1997. He created the cloud services business, which now makes almost 60% of Amazon's profit.

The news of this big shift hit Wall Street on Tuesday. Despite the announcement, investors did not seem worried, and the company's share price went up 1.5%.

Bezos will focus on other projects, like The Washington Post and Blue Origin, his company for the exploration of space. He also wants to work on his charities, the Day 1 Fund and the Bezos Earth Fund. He declared:

"I'm super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have."

Marty Baron, executive director at Washington Post, praised Bezos, who owns the paper. His sense of business, Baron, declared, was important for the success of the publication. He stated:

"It's not just money, it's not financial capital. It's intellectual capital. He's someone who understands consumer business and consumer behavior. That is really important to us."

Although his subordinates praise him, Bezos has been criticized for not sharing more of his wealth. His ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, beat him to that, donating $6 billion last year.