Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive, will hand over the reins of the e-commerce giant this summer and transition into the role of executive chairman.
Andy Jassy, the chief executive of Amazon’s cloud computing division, will be promoted to run all of Amazon.
Bezos had stepped back from much of the day-to-day business over several years, though the pandemic pulled him back in last spring.
“Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition,” Bezos said in a statement.
Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 and since then has morphed it from an online bookstore into a mega online retailer that sells and delivers all sorts of products all over the world.
In January of last year, Amazon surpassed a $1 trillion market cap under Bezos’ leadership.
It’s now worth more than $1.6 trillion.
Under Bezos’ stewardship, Amazon has come to rule over internet commerce, established itself as a backbone of the infrastructure of the modern web through its Amazon Web Services products, built a subscription empire around its Amazon Prime services, launched popular technology products like the Amazon Echo and Amazon Kindle lines of devices, and even begun to dabble in physical retail through grocery stores and an acquisition of Whole Foods.
Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and has led Amazon’s Web Services cloud team since its inception.
AWS continues to drive much of Amazon’s profit.
Bezos said he will stay engaged in important Amazon projects but will also have more time to focus on the Bezos Earth Fund, his Blue Origin spaceship company, The Washington Post and the Amazon Day 1 Fund.