Jeff Bezos gives away $200M and thanks Amazon customers after Blue Origin’s big launch

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (wearing cowboy hat) with Jose Andres (left of Bezos) and Van Jones (right of Bezos), recipients of $100 million charitable gifts from Bezos, announced following his Blue Origin flight to space Tuesday. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

On the heels of what some critics have called the world’s most expensive midlife crisis, Amazon founder and Blue Origin boss Jeff Bezos announced a pair of charitable donations totaling $200 million hours after his space capsule touched down in West Texas.

Bezos announced gifts of $100 million apiece to chef Jose Andres and political commentator Van Jones, who will direct the funds to charities of their choice. A week before Tuesday’s successful suborbital flight, he donated $200 million to National Air & Space Museum. And recently, the non-profit arm of his Blue Origin spaceflight company gave $19 million to 19 space nonprofits.

The grand total: $419 million in a week. And one 65-mile trip to (near) outer space.

Bezos announced the gifts during a post-flight press conference following a 10-minute ride to space on a reusable New Shepard rocket ship that was built by Blue Origin, the company created by Bezos in 2000. The flight marked the first time that people flew aboard New Shepard.

“They can give it all to their own charity or they can share the wealth. It’s up to them,” Bezos said. The gifts are part of the “Courage and Civility Award,” which “recognizes leaders who aim high, pursue solutions with courage, and always do so with civility.”

In his comments, the richest man in the world — now worth $204 billion — also thanked Amazon customers and employees. “I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this,” he said.

But the successful flight and an ecstatic Bezos didn’t seem to mollify critics, including Washington state Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who rode the wave of media attention to point out that maybe too much money has pooled at the top.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a frequent critic of Amazon and Bezos, also chimed in. “Jeff Bezos forgot to thank all the hardworking Americans who actually paid taxes to keep this country running while he and Amazon paid nothing,” Warren tweeted. Elected officials, progressive activists, and academics frequently take aim at Amazon for reportedly paying nothing in federal income taxes.

Others noted that by announcing the $200 million donation just after the launch, Bezos was responding to criticism.

And as some obliquely pointed out, this is the second billionaire space flight this month, prompting a new sort of gilded space race.

Not every reaction was so pointed. Chris Lewicki, a Seattle-area space entrepreneur, said Bezos “is remaking charity in his own innovative way.”

And Bezos wasn’t alone in the capsule, of course. Bezos’ brother, Mark was on board as was Oliver Daemen, a Dutch student who was Blue Origin’s first paying passenger.

But perhaps the most compelling occupant was Mary Wallace Funk, a pilot who in the 1960s participated in NASA’s astronaut training but who never had the chance to fly in a rocket.

The 82-year-old, known as “Wally,” was thrilled.

And Daily Show alum Jon Stewart used a parody of Bezos’ and other billionaires’ rockets to help launch his new show, “The Problem with Jon Stewart:”

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