How much did Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez spend to sponsor the Met Gala 2026?

The 2026 Met Gala is set to take place in New York on Monday, May 4th. Page Six has exclusively revealed the amount spent by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, who are sponsoring the event this year. This support has raised some eyebrows.

Just hours before the 2026 Met Gala, and amidst increasing calls for boycotts in recent months, Page Six has unveiled information that could further heat up tensions. This year, it’s not the theme – “Costume Art” – that’s causing controversy, but rather the personalities funding the event. On November 17th, the event’s organizing committee announced that the couple of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez would be the main financiers, alongside Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue, and fashion house Saint Laurent.

According to Page Six, the couple paid a hefty sum to secure this role: a record-breaking $10 million to the organization from a tech billionaire for this event. “The Bezos embody the current American dream in terms of status, wealth, and style,” said former Vogue editor-in-chief William Norwich. “They display ostentatious consumption and they have the ‘AWOK,’ Anna Wintour’s approval.”

In November, their sponsorship announcement sparked mixed reactions, with some calling for a boycott of the event, especially due to their association with President Donald Trump. Others criticized Amazon’s link to ICE, the US immigration enforcement agency, which Bezos founded in 1994. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani will not attend the Met Gala, breaking a tradition spanning several decades.

Several months later, the controversy still lingers. “There was a time when access to places like the Met Gala, or even the pages of Vogue, wasn’t something you could just buy, it was something you grew into through your influence, work, and impact. It carried a sense of earned prestige, not bought,” said Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, former special events organizer at Vogue. “It used to be a true celebration of creators, their muses, and the art behind fashion…That sense of purpose now seems less defined.”

“I have a broken heart,” concluded a frequent Met Gala attendee. “It’s the fact that you can buy a spot next to Anna and at the Met,” he laments, suggesting that a little money is all it takes to gain acceptance in this originally elite world. The red carpet is already shaping up to be slightly tense.