Jeff Bezos makes a $34 million bet to replace cotton and polyester

Jeff Bezos is betting that the future of fashion won’t be made from cotton or polyester but, instead, from lab-grown fibers.

Through the Bezos Earth Fund, Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos have committed $34 million to researchers developing next-generation textiles, including biodegradable fibers and plastic-free synthetic silk. Their aim is to replace some of the most resource-intensive materials in the global clothing industry with alternatives that could dramatically reduce the industry’s environmental footprint.

The investment marks a notable shift for the fund, which has largely focused on conservation since Bezos pledged $10 billion to climate initiatives in 2020. Now, it’s partially turning toward fashion, an industry deeply reliant on fossil fuels and one of the largest contributors to global emissions.

“The use of fossil fuels in the fashion industry is a big issue,” Tom Taylor, the fund’s president and CEO, said, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Today’s most common materials, including polyester and viscose, are derived from oil and coal. They’re cheap, durable, and ubiquitous among both fast-fashion and luxury brands, but they also come with steep environmental costs. These fabrics are not biodegradable, shed microplastics, and can release so-called forever chemicals into water systems, raising growing health concerns, according to the European Environment Agency.

Bezos’s grant backs researchers who are experimenting with materials grown from bacteria, agricultural waste, and other unconventional sources, innovations that could reshape what clothing is made of at a molecular level, the Journal reported. 

“When you start asking questions about what clothes could be made of, the answers are incredible,” Sánchez Bezos said in a statement to the Journal. “The future of fashion is being invented right now.”

Still, science is only part of the challenge. Scaling these materials has proved difficult. Sustainable textiles remain expensive to produce, and many startups in the space have struggled to survive. Even when viable alternatives exist, brands and consumers often default to cheaper, familiar fabrics, Vogue reported. 

“It’s small, underfunded, and lacks those industry relationships that could push it further and deeper,” Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, said, according to the Journal. 

The fund is aiming to close that gap. Grant recipients include Columbia University, working with the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as the University of California, Berkeley, Clemson University, and the Cotton Foundation. At Columbia, researchers are developing a biodegradable fiber grown from bacteria that feed on agricultural waste, an approach that could reduce reliance on both petroleum and water-intensive crops, the Journal reported. 

Biomedical engineering professor Helen H. Lu told the Journal that the funding will help expand research teams and address technical hurdles, particularly at a moment when federal support is shrinking. She pointed to “uncertainty in federal funding” after the The President administration canceled more than 1,600 grants from the National Science Foundation last year.

The fund hopes some of these materials could reach consumers within three to five years, the Journal reported. But even that timeline underscores the scale of the challenge. Transforming a global supply chain built on cheap synthetics won’t happen quickly.

While the Bezos Earth Fund operates independently, Bezos is still the founder of Amazon, the world’s largest clothing retailer and a frequent target of criticism over emissions tied to manufacturing and rapid delivery. The company said it has reduced carbon emissions per shipment by one-third since 2019 and is working toward net-zero by 2040.

Amazon employees have publicly protested the company’s climate impact through the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group, arguing its emissions footprint contradicts leadership’s environmental messaging. Environmental groups have also repeatedly ranked Amazon among the largest corporate emitters, pointing to the scale of its logistics network and rapid-delivery model. 

Even Bezos himself has faced criticism for climate philanthropy that some advocates say does not fully address Amazon’s underlying business model, highlighting a broader debate over whether corporate-led climate efforts can offset systemic consumption.

Some sustainability advocates argue that better materials alone won’t solve fashion’s climate problem, instead calling for reduced production and consumption altogether. Taylor acknowledged those debates but framed the fund’s strategy differently.

“Different people have different values,” he said. “This is ours.”

The push into fashion also arrives as Bezos and Sánchez Bezos take on a prominent role as lead sponsors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute—home of the Met Gala—tying their climate ambitions to one of the industry’s most visible cultural platforms.

—Leila Sheridan

This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com. 

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