One day, when we’re all grown up, we’d like to be rich and never have to work anymore. The (almost unattainable) pipedream of all eight-year-olds has been achieved by the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, at the age of 57. The Amazon CEO announced late yesterday that he will step down as CEO, taking up a role as executive chairman.

Bezos will be replaced by Andy Jassy who heads-up (and founded) Amazon’s cloud computing business. Jassy will fill Bezos’ seat in the latter half of 2021, according to reports.

Jeff Bezos steps down

“Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else,” Bezos said in a letter to Amazon staff.

The soon-to-be ex-CEO of Amazon details his reason for the move, and basically, the man has other things he wants to focus on. This doesn’t mean he will step away from day-to-day operations completely, but he has plans to focus his efforts on his myriad of charity foundations and funds.

“As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have 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,” the email reads.

The man who has managed to amass a fortune of $196.2bn, according to Forbes’ list of billionaires, is ready to pass the reigns after almost 30 years. He said he will continue to focus on new products and initiatives for Amazon.

This also comes while Amazon is facing various antitrust allegations in the US, so we hope Jassy has a particular set of skills to take on the US Justice Department.

Source: BBC