Sophie Alexander | The Seattle Times

FILE – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is seen on the sidelines before the start of an NFL football game on Sept. 15, 2022, in Kansas City, Mo. A former housekeeper for Bezos says she and other employees suffered unsafe working conditions that included being forced to climb out a laundry room window to get to a bathroom. In a lawsuit filed in Seattle this week, a longtime housekeeper claims she was discriminated and retaliated against when she complained about a lack of rest breaks or an area where staff could eat. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) FX414 FX414

November 14, 2022 at 6:39 am

Bezos to give away the bulk of his fortune

Bezos will devote the money to fighting climate change and supporting those who seek to unify people amid wide social and political divisions, he told...

Business

Melinda Gates talks about her new book, “Moment of Lift” at her company Pivotal Ventures’ offices in Kirkland Thursday March 28, 2019. 209684

February 2, 2022 at 7:56 am

Melinda French Gates won’t be donating most of $11.4B fortune to Gates Foundation

Melinda French Gates will increasingly give away her fortune through philanthropies other than the $50 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Business

FILE – In this March 4, 2018, file photo, then-MacKenzie Bezos arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. Scott, philanthropist, author and former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has married a Seattle science teacher. Dan Jewett wrote in a letter to the website of the nonprofit organization the Giving Pledge, on Saturday, March 6, 2021, that he was grateful to be able to marry such a generous person and was ready to help her give away her wealth to help others. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

January 28, 2022 at 4:35 pm

MacKenzie Scott cut Amazon stock worth $8.5 billion last year

MacKenzie Scott's stake in Amazon shrunk by 2.5 million shares last year as one of the world's richest women has set records with the pace...

Bill and Melinda Gates in 2018. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on global health and development, and on education in the United States, has given out more than $50 billion in grants in 135 countries. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Daniel Berman

January 26, 2022 at 11:33 am

Gates Foundation adds billionaire, baroness to board in wake of Gateses' divorce

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates are shaking up control of their $50 billion foundation, one of the world's most powerful philanthropic organizations.

Local News

October 24, 2021 at 1:02 pm

Rare Jordan Nikes sold for $1.47M, set new auction record

Michael Jordan's earliest known regular-season game-worn Nike sneakers sold at a Sotheby's auction in Las Vegas Sunday for $1.472 million, breaking a record for sneakers...

Business

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Beijing, China, on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. The New Economy Forum, organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, aims to bring together leaders from public and private sectors to find solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. Photographer: Takaaki Iwabu/Bloomberg

September 8, 2021 at 9:10 am

Bill Gates’s firm buys controlling stake in Four Seasons Hotels

Four Seasons shareholders took the company private in 2007, with Bill Gates and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal leading the deal. The new owners expanded the...

Business

Jeff Bezos Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg 775227821

September 2, 2021 at 3:07 pm

Bezos gives $172 million in Amazon stock after donations

Jeff Bezos donated more than $170 million in Amazon shares just over a month after he announced a series of mega-donations.

Business

FILE – In this Thursday, July 1, 2021, file photo, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, poses for photographers as she arrives for a meeting after a meeting on the sideline of the gender equality conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Philanthropists Melinda French Gates, MacKenzie Scott and the family foundation of billionaire Lynn Schusterman awarded $40 million Thursday, July 29, 2021, to four gender equality projects. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File) NYSB306 NYSB306

August 6, 2021 at 9:15 pm

Bill Gates’s Cascade transfers $2.4 billion in shares to Melinda French Gates

Bill Gates’s Cascade Investment has conveyed 3.3 million shares of AutoNation worth about $387 million to Melinda French Gates, as well as 2.8 million shares...

Business

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates in Kirkland, Wash., Feb. 1, 2018. (Kyle Johnson/The New York Times)

August 2, 2021 at 2:10 pm

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates divorce becomes official

Three months after they first announced their split following 27 years of marriage, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates are officially divorced. The marriage dissolution...

Local News

July 7, 2021 at 9:40 am

French Gates sets up exit option as Gates Foundation adjusts to divorce

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it plans to add trustees to its governing board by early next year, and that Melinda French Gates...

Business