updated: Feb 04 2021, 07:55 ist
Bill Gates set out to heal the world. His Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen bought sports teams. Ted Turner raced yachts. And Donald Trump went into politics.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, plans to build rockets and save the planet.
Bezos, 57, is the latest in a line of corporate titans who have stepped away from their day jobs to devote themselves to other activities.
Bezos, whose net worth is $197 billion according to Forbes magazine, announced on Tuesday he was resigning as chief executive officer of the online retail giant he launched 27 years ago.
He said he would remain executive chairman of Amazon but would devote more time to "passions" such as his private space firm Blue Origin and the Bezos Earth Fund, to which he made a $10 billion donation last year.