Meet the beautiful lady who provided the brains, vision, and articulation to build Amazon — and then gave it away

She built the fortune, not he -- with brains and persuasion

Today, she surreptitiously supports society in a significant way, but the reality is the Mackenzie Scott was the one who built Amazon into an economic juggernaut.

Not the guy who is demonstrating his lack of business acumen by destroying the Washington Post.

When I first read a portion of her biography, I realized that the company envisioned by the guy now at the top was actually her brain-child. Her husband wanted to sell books online.

That was his vision.

McKenzie had the perception to see that a true successful company could be constructed that would sell more than a few books — something like what Amazon became.

Why did she succeed?

The original plan fell flat for one reason: The wrong person was selling it. So, McKenzie Scott took over the gargantuan task of convincing the big money men who controlled the future that her vision would actually work.

They had already turned down her husband, who had the articulation skills of a snail (ever hear him speak?). She then built the foundation, and the husband did the grunt work.

She had the charisma and the persuasive communication skills to secure the funding for the deal.

However, she was not really that interested in business. She was also the intellect, and her husband’s was exaggerated. A 150 IQ?

His is fiction — while she sold her first novel after studying under famed novelist Toni Morrison at Princeton.

Scott credits author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison not only with shaping her writing, but in helping her find her footing early in her career. Morrison, who was Scott’s creative writing professor at Princeton University, put Scott on a path to publish her first novel and get one of her first jobs out of school, where she met now ex-husband Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.

“This writer that I admired so much also turned out to be such a gifted and devoted teacher,” Scott said of Morrison in a 2017 Princeton University interview. “She has given me a real example of a life of passionate devotion to more than one calling.”

Scott has certainly had multiple callings. In addition to being a novelist and early contributor to Amazon, Scott, worth about $40 billion, is a prominent philanthropist. In 2025 alone, she donated $7.1 billion to nonprofits, and has given away more than $26 billion since 2019.

Fortune Magazine

And she married down. She could have done better.

When the business started, she presided over the business aspect of it, while he did the logistics.

However, the business plan was hers, and the ability to secure funding was hers.

Why tell this story?

Because she has class, and the guy she married has none.

And he dumped her for a sleazy looking woman instead of a beautiful, superbly intelligent one.

And, most important, in her divorce proceedings — the best thing that ever happened to her — she decided to take her billions and give it away.

She became a true philanthropist, a la Andrew Carnegie, giving to education and reading and literacy and all of those positive aspects of society.

When, in 2019, she committed to giving away at least half of her wealth as part of the Giving Pledge, Ms. Scott said, “I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.” As her net worth has waxed and waned in the ensuing years, some observers have questioned whether she would give her money away faster than her wealth could appreciate.

Having given more than $26 billion away, Ms. Scott is not only one of the biggest givers in absolute terms, but she has also given away a significant share of her total wealth, which Bloomberg estimates at nearly $40 billion. The Dells, for instance, are still worth more than $150 billion.

Nicholas Kulish and Theodore Schleifer,“MacKenzie Scott Announces $7 Billion of Charitable Giving This Year,” New York Times, Dec. 9, 2025

So, the woman who actually built the financial behemoth is now giving away billions.

That demonstrates who really has class.