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

# Lab-Grown Fabrics Could Replace Your Cotton T-Shirt Jeff Bezos is investing $34 million to develop new types of fabric made in labs instead of grown in fields or extracted from oil, with the goal of making clothes that are less harmful to the environment. Traditional materials like polyester and cotton require massive amounts of resources and release toxic chemicals into water, so researchers are working on alternatives like biodegradable fibers and lab-made silk that could eventually become mainstream in the fashion industry. If successful, this could mean the clothes you buy in the future will be easier on the planet without requiring you to change how you shop.