HEADLINES & GLOBAL NEWS By Feb 03, 2021 10:26 AM EST Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will depart his post later this year, handing the helm over to the company's top cloud executive, Andy Jassy. Bezos will become Amazon's Executive Chairman of the Board. The transition will take effect, the company said, in the second half of 2021. Bezos, 57, created Amazon in 1994 and has since turned the one-time online bookstore into a global mega-retailer in various categories, from electronics to food to streaming. In January of last year, under Bezos' leadership, Amazon reached a $1 trillion market cap; it is now worth more than $1.6 trillion. "Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it's consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it's hard to put attention on anything else," Bezos said in a letter to Amazon Staff on Tuesday.