Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos will step aside later this year to become executive chairman.
He will be making way for Andy Jassy, who currently heads up its cloud computing division, AWS, to replace him in the role.
The ecommerce group’s founder, 57, on Tuesday said it was an “optimal time” to make the move, which will happen in the third quarter.
In a letter to staff, Bezos said he would stay “engaged in important Amazon initiatives”, but would turn much of his attention to his personal climate change initiatives, the space exploration company Blue Origin and The Washington Post newspaper that he owns.
Mr Bezos has been chief executive of Amazon since its founding in 1994, during which time he became one of the world’s wealthiest people, with a current net worth of almost $200bn, according to Forbes.
“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring,” he wrote in the letter. Amazon declined to share further details on the leadership reshuffle, including who may be positioned to take over AWS.
Mr Jassy, 53, is an Amazon veteran who joined the company in 1997.
He has run AWS since its inception in 2003. In this latest quarter, AWS generated $12.67bn in sales, with an operating income of $3.6bn — the most profitable part of Amazon’s business.
The announcement comes as the company as a whole posted record quarterly revenues of $125.6bn, up more than 40 per cent in the same period in the previous year, and comfortably beating Wall Street’s expectations.
“When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention,” Bezos said.
“Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.”
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