How tech won the pandemic and now may never lose We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss By David Streitfeld Normal text size Advertisement In April 2020, with 2000 Americans dying every day of COVID-19, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive and the world’s richest man, announced he was focusing on people rather than profits. Amazon would spend about $US4 billion ($5.5 billion) in the next few months “providing for customers and protecting employees,” he said, wiping out the profit the retailer would have made without the virus. It was a typically bold Amazon announcement, a shrewd public relations move to sacrifice financial gain at a moment of misery and fear. Bezos said this was “the hardest time we’ve ever faced” and suggested the new approach would extend indefinitely. “If you’re a share owner in Amazon,” he advised, “you may want to take a seat.”