Jeff Bezos is an American businessman renowned as the founder, executive chairman, and former CEO of Amazon, a global leader in e-commerce and cloud computing. As of May 2025, his estimated net worth is $220.9 billion, ranking him as the third-richest person worldwide, after holding the top position from 2017 to 2021.
On January 12, 1964, Jeffrey Preston Bezos (né Jorgensen) was born. He is known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon.
In June 1965, when Jeff Bezos was 17 months old, his mother, Jacklyn, filed for divorce from Ted.
In April 1968, after his parents divorced, Jeff Bezos's mother married Miguel "Mike" Bezos, who adopted 4-year-old Jeff. Jeff's surname was then legally changed from Jorgensen to Bezos.
In July 1969, the Apollo 11 mission launched, and later in 2013, Bezos Expeditions funded the recovery of the Apollo 11 mission's S-1C stage engines from the Atlantic Ocean floor.
After graduating from high school in 1982, Bezos attended Princeton University, where he initially majored in physics but later switched to electrical engineering and computer science.
In 1982, Bezos was high school valedictorian, a National Merit Scholar, and a Silver Knight Award winner. In his graduation speech, Bezos spoke of his dream to colonize space.
In 1982, during his high school valedictorian speech, Jeff Bezos expressed his vision for human life in the Solar System, including hotels, amusement parks, and colonies in orbit, driven by a desire to preserve Earth.
After graduating from college in 1986, Bezos was offered jobs at Intel, Bell Labs, and Andersen Consulting.
In 1986, Jeff Bezos graduated from Princeton University with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.
In 1988, Jeff Bezos transitioned into the banking industry when he became a product manager at Bankers Trust.
From 1990 to 1994, Bezos worked at D. E. Shaw & Co, a hedge fund with a focus on mathematical modelling.
In 1992, while working for D. E. Shaw in Manhattan, Jeff Bezos met novelist MacKenzie Tuttle, who was a research associate at the firm.
On July 5, 1994, Jeff Bezos and his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, founded Amazon in a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington, after writing its business plan.
From 1990 to 1994, he worked at D. E. Shaw & Co, a newly created hedge fund with a strong emphasis on mathematical modelling. Bezos became D. E. Shaw's fourth senior vice-president by age 30.
In 1994, Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Tuttle moved to Seattle, Washington, where Bezos founded Amazon.
In mid-1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon during a road trip from New York City to Seattle. Initially, it was an online bookstore.
In 1996, Jeff Bezos drove a Honda Accord.
In 1997, Bezos used the $54 million raised during the company's equity offering to finance acquisitions of smaller competitors.
In 1997, Jeff Bezos first became a millionaire after raising $54 million through Amazon's initial public offering (IPO).
The Motley Fool estimated that if Jeff Bezos had not sold any of his shares from its original public offering in 1997, his net worth would sit at $181 billion in 2018.
In 1998, Bezos expanded Amazon into the online sale of music and video, as well as a variety of other consumer goods.
In 1998, Jeff Bezos invested $250,000 in Google, becoming one of the first shareholders.
Since 1998, Jeff Bezos has published an annual letter for Amazon shareholders outlining his business principles.
In 1999, Bezos acquired a majority stake in pets.com.
In 1999, Jeff Bezos purchased three adjoining apartments at 25 Central Park West in Manhattan for $7.65 million.
In 1999, Jeff Bezos was first included on the Forbes World's Billionaires list with an estimated net worth of $10.1 billion, placing him 19th in the world and 10th in the USA.
In 1999, Jeff Bezos was worth $10 billion yet drove a 1996 Honda Accord.
In September 2000, Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin, a human spaceflight startup, marking his serious commitment to space exploration.
In 2000, Bezos founded Blue Origin, an aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company.
In 2000, Bezos invested in kozmo.com for $60 million and borrowed $2 billion from banks as Amazon's cash balances decreased.
In 2002, Bezos led Amazon to launch Amazon Web Services, which compiled data from weather channels and website traffic. Revenue stagnated and the company almost went bankrupt.
In March 2003, Jeff Bezos was a passenger in a helicopter that crashed in West Texas while surveying land for Blue Origin. All occupants survived, and Bezos sustained minor injuries.
In 2003, Amazon rebounded from financial instability and made a profit of $35 million.
In 2003, Rob Meyerson became the first president of Blue Origin, leading the company from 2003 to 2017.
From 2005 to 2007, Jeff Bezos quadrupled his net worth to $8.7 billion.
In 2006, Blue Origin purchased a large tract of land in West Texas to construct a launch and test facility.
From 2005 to 2007, Jeff Bezos quadrupled his net worth to $8.7 billion.
According to a 2008 Time profile, Bezos wished to create a device that allowed a "flow state" in reading similar to the experience of video games with the Amazon Kindle.
After the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession, Jeff Bezos's net worth decreased to $6.8 billion—a 17.7% drop.
Jeff Bezos donated to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center several times between 2009 and 2017.
In 2010, Jeff Bezos donated $100,000 towards a movement against a Washington state income tax for "top earners".
In 2010, Jeff Bezos's wealth rose by 85.2%, leaving him with $12.6 billion.
In September 2011, an uncrewed prototype vehicle from Blue Origin crashed during a short-hop test flight, which was considered a setback despite the company's progress in spaceflight.
In 2011, Jeff Bezos told his technical advisor Greg Hart that the goal of the project which became Alexa was to create "the Star Trek computer."
In 2012, Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos contributed $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage, supporting a yes vote on Washington Referendum 74, which affirmed a same-sex marriage law in the state.
In 2012, Jeff Bezos bought a fourth unit at 25 Central Park West in Manhattan for $5.3 million, adding to his existing holdings there.
In May 2013, Jeff Bezos met with Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic to discuss commercial spaceflight opportunities and strategies.
On August 5, 2013, Jeff Bezos announced his purchase of The Washington Post for $250 million in cash.
On October 1, 2013, the sale of The Washington Post closed, and Nash Holdings, Bezos's holding company, took control.
In 2013, Bezos Expeditions funded the recovery of two Saturn V first-stage Rocketdyne F-1 engines from the Apollo 11 mission's S-1C stage in July 1969 from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
In 2013, Bezos purchased The Washington Post for $250 million.
In 2013, Bezos secured a $600 million contract with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on behalf of Amazon Web Services.
In 2013, Jeff Bezos pledged $500,000 to Worldreader, a non-profit organization founded by a former Amazon employee.
In March 2014, Jeff Bezos made his first significant change at The Washington Post by lifting the online paywall for subscribers of several U.S. local newspapers.
In May 2014, the International Trade Union Confederation named Jeff Bezos the "World's Worst Boss".
In 2014, Amazon won a bid for a cloud computing contract with the CIA valued at $600 million.
In 2014, after a rumor broke out that Amazon was developing a smartphone, Jeff Bezos's net worth rose to $30.5 billion.
In 2015, Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle reached space and successfully landed back on Earth.
In 2015, Jeff Bezos announced the development of a new orbital launch vehicle with the first flight planned for the late 2010s. Also in November 2015, Blue Origin's New Shepard successfully reached space.
In 2015, Jeff Bezos sent a memo to employees denouncing a New York Times piece.
In January 2016, Jeff Bezos set out to reinvent The Washington Post as a media and technology company.
By the time the Forbes list was calculated in March 2016, Jeff Bezos's net worth was registered at $45.2 billion.
In May 2016, Bezos sold slightly more than one million shares of his holdings in Amazon for $671 million.
On August 4, 2016, Bezos sold another million of his shares for $756.7 million.
In October 2016, Jeff Bezos's wealth increased by $16.2 billion to $66.5 billion.
After the 2016 presidential election, Jeff Bezos was invited to join Donald Trump's Defense Innovation Advisory Board, an advisory council to improve the technology used by the Defense Department.
From 2016 to 2017, Jeff Bezos' wealth experienced rapid growth, sparking discussions about his earnings on a reduced time scale.
In 2016, Jeff Bezos allowed select journalists to tour and photograph his Blue Origin facility. He also called for increased inter-space energy and industrial manufacturing to reduce pollution.
In 2016, Jeff Bezos portrayed a Starfleet official in the movie Star Trek Beyond, attending a San Diego Comic-Con screening.
Since 2016, Jeff Bezos has spoken more freely about his hopes to colonize the solar system, and has been selling $1 billion in Amazon stock each year to capitalize Blue Origin in an effort to support this endeavor.
Since 2016, Jeff Bezos's relative lack of philanthropy compared to other billionaires has drawn criticism from the public.
From January 2017 to January 2018, Jeff Bezos's net worth increased by $33.6 billion, outstripping the economic development of more than 96 countries.
In May 2017, Jeff Bezos gave $1 million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
On June 15, 2017, Jeff Bezos posted a message on Twitter asking for ideas for philanthropy focused on long-term impact.
In July 2017, Jeff Bezos briefly unseated Bill Gates as the wealthiest person in the world.
On July 27, 2017, Bezos momentarily became the world's wealthiest person, surpassing Bill Gates, with an estimated net worth of over $90 billion.
On October 10, 2017, Jeff Bezos earned an estimated $6.24 billion in 5 minutes, which was slightly less than the then annual gross domestic product of Kyrgyzstan.
Throughout October 2017, Jeff Bezos sporadically surpassed Bill Gates as the wealthiest person as Amazon's share price fluctuated.
On November 24, 2017, Jeff Bezos's wealth surpassed $100 billion for the first time.
In December 2017, Blue Origin's New Shepard successfully flew and landed dummy passengers, pushing the anticipated start date for human space travel to late 2018.
In 2017, Amazon created 130,000 jobs.
In 2017, Jeff Bezos's $250,000 investment in Google resulted in 3.3 million shares of Google stock, worth about $3.1 billion.
In 2017, Rob Meyerson ended his tenure as president of Blue Origin, having led the company since 2003.
In 2017, according to Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jeff Bezos became the wealthiest person.
Jeff Bezos donated to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center several times between 2009 and 2017.
Since 2017, Jeff Bezos has been portrayed by Kyle Mooney and Steve Carell on Saturday Night Live.
From January 2017 to January 2018, Jeff Bezos's net worth increased by $33.6 billion, outstripping the economic development of more than 96 countries.
In January 2018, Jeff Bezos made a $33 million donation to TheDream.US, a college scholarship fund for undocumented immigrants.
In January 2018, it was announced that Jeff Bezos would be involved in a new, unnamed healthcare company, later named Haven, in partnership with Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway.
By January 19, 2018, Bezos's Amazon stock holdings had appreciated to slightly over $109 billion; he began to sell stock to raise cash for other enterprises, in particular, Blue Origin.
On January 29, 2018, Bezos was featured in Amazon's Super Bowl commercial.
On February 1, 2018, Amazon reported its highest ever profit with quarterly earnings of $2 billion.
On March 6, 2018, Bezos was formally designated the wealthiest person in the world by Forbes, with a net worth of $112 billion.
In March 2018, Bezos dispatched Amit Agarwal to India with $5.5 billion to localize operations. Also, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Amazon and Bezos of tax avoidance and anti-competitive practices.
In March 2018, Jeff Bezos met with Mohammad bin Salman in Seattle to discuss investment opportunities for Saudi Vision 2030.
On May 1, 2018, forensic analysis concluded it was "highly probable" that the hack of Jeff Bezos's mobile phone was achieved using a malicious file hidden in a video sent via a WhatsApp message from the personal account of the crown prince.
In May 2018, Jeff Bezos stated that the primary goal of Blue Origin is to preserve Earth's natural resources by making humans multi-planetary, and he announced that New Shepard would begin transporting humans into sub-orbital space by November 2018.
In June 2018, Jeff Bezos donated to Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a philanthropic fund aimed at promoting emissions-free energy.
During July 2018, members of the U.S. Congress called on Bezos to detail the applications of Amazon's face recognition software, Rekognition.
In July 2018, Bezos was named the "richest man in modern history" after his net worth increased to $150 billion.
In July 2018, it was announced that Jeff Bezos had priced commercial spaceflight tickets from $200,000 to $300,000 per person.
On July 17, 2018, Jeff Bezos was designated the "wealthiest person in modern history" by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Fortune, MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.
In September 2018, Jeff Bezos announced he would commit approximately $2 billion to a fund to deal with American homelessness and establish a network of non-profit preschools for low income communities, including the Day 1 Families Fund and the Day 1 Academies Fund.
In September 2018, Jeff Bezos donated $10 million to With Honor, an organization that works to increase the number of veterans in political office.
In September 2018, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act and accused Amazon of receiving corporate welfare.
In September 2018, it was reported that Jeff Bezos was the only one of the top five billionaires who had not signed the Giving Pledge, and questions were raised about his new Day 1 Fund's structure and funding.
On October 2, 2018, Bezos announced a company-wide wage increase to $15 per hour for American workers being paid the minimum wage.
Jeff Bezos announced that New Shepard would begin transporting humans into sub-orbital space by November 2018.
In 2018, Bezos revealed that his Princeton classmate defeated him in solving a mathematical problem, causing him to give up on his dreams of becoming a theoretical physicist.
In 2018, a $10 billion contract with the Pentagon known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project was allegedly written up in a way that favors Amazon, raising controversy.
In 2018, it was reported that Jeff Bezos met with Amazon investors for just six hours a year.
In 2018, more than 400 Washington Post employees wrote an open letter to Jeff Bezos criticizing his poor wages and benefits for his employees and demanding fair compensation and job security.
In January 2019, Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie released a joint statement revealing they would be getting divorced after 25 years together. Subsequently, National Enquirer revealed that Bezos had an affair with Lauren Sánchez.
On February 7, 2019, Jeff Bezos accused American Media, Inc. owner David Pecker of "extortion and blackmail" for threatening to publish intimate photos of him and Lauren Sánchez if he did not stop his investigation into how his text messages and other photos had been leaked to the National Enquirer.
In March 2019, Jeff Bezos's security consultant accused the Saudi government of hacking Bezos's phone, linking it to the Washington Post's coverage of Jamal Khashoggi's murder.
On April 4, 2019, Jeff Bezos's divorce was finalized, with him keeping 75% of the couple's Amazon stock and MacKenzie getting the remaining 25% ($35.6 billion).
In June 2019, Jeff Bezos purchased three adjoining apartments overlooking Madison Square Park in Manhattan, including a penthouse, for a combined total of $80 million, making this one of the most expensive real estate purchases within New York City in 2019.
In November 2019, after the JEDI contract was awarded to Microsoft instead of Amazon, Amazon filed a lawsuit with allegations that the bidding process was biased.
In 2019, Harvard Business Review did not rank Jeff Bezos in the top 100 CEOs, citing Amazon's low ESG scores.
In 2019, Jeff Bezos's wealth was reduced due to his divorce from MacKenzie Bezos, who received 25% of his Amazon shares, valued at approximately $36 billion.
In 2019, a PAC linked to Jeff Bezos spent over $1 million in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat the reelection bid of Seattle city council member and activist Kshama Sawant.
In January 2020, The Guardian reported that the hack of Jeff Bezos's phone was initiated before Jamal Khashoggi's murder but after Khashoggi wrote critically about the crown prince in the Washington Post.
In February 2020, Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion to combat climate change through the Bezos Earth Fund.
In February 2020, Jeff Bezos purchased the Warner Estate from David Geffen for $165 million, setting a record price paid for a residence in the Los Angeles area.
In April 2020, Jeff Bezos donated $100 million to food banks through Feeding America in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In August 2020, Bezos had a net worth exceeding $200 billion.
On February 2, 2021, Bezos sent an email to all Amazon employees, stating the transition would allow him to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and other passions.
In February 2021, Bezos announced that in the third quarter of 2021 he would step down from his role as CEO of Amazon to become the Executive Chairman of the Amazon Board.
On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as the CEO and president of Amazon and took on the role of executive chairman. Andy Jassy succeeded Bezos as the CEO and president of Amazon.
On July 6, 2021, the Pentagon cancelled the JEDI contract with Microsoft, citing that "due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances, the JEDI Cloud contract no longer meets its needs."
In July 2021, Jeff Bezos announced the Courage and Civility Award and donated $100 million each to lawyer Van Jones and chef José Andrés.
On July 20, 2021, Jeff Bezos launched on the NS-16 mission with his half-brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen, nine days after Richard Branson's flight. The suborbital flight lasted over 10 minutes.
In September 2021, Bezos co-founded Altos Labs with Mail.ru founder Yuri Milner.
In November 2021, at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Jeff Bezos pledged to donate $2 billion towards restructuring food systems and nature conservation.
On November 22, 2021, Jeff Bezos donated $100 million to the Obama Foundation to "help expand the scope of programming that reaches emerging leaders", and requested the Obama Presidential Center's plaza to be named after John Lewis.
In 2021, Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon and focused on Blue Origin and his engagement to Lauren Sánchez, which may have influenced his political views.
Jeff Bezos was the wealthiest person up until 2021, according to Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
On January 19, 2022, Altos Labs, co-founded by Jeff Bezos, launched with $3 billion in capital and Hal Barron as its executive team leader, aiming to develop longevity therapeutics.
In February 2022, Jeff Bezos expanded his residential holdings by purchasing a $16.13-million-dollar apartment in the Flatiron neighborhood, where he already owns all the units on the top floors.
On November 22, 2022, Jeff Bezos awarded $123 million to organizations engaged in relocating homeless families to permanent housing through Day 1 Families Fund grants.
On May 22, 2023, Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos became engaged.
Around 750 employees at The Washington Post went on a brief strike in December 2023 in response to Jeff Bezos' plans to lay off staff.
According to Forbes, in 2023 Jeff Bezos was the second-wealthiest person in America and the third-wealthiest person in the world.
Since 2023, Jeff Bezos has been a resident of Indian Creek, Florida, which is near Trump's Mar-a-Lago.
As of February 2024, Jeff Bezos's net worth is about $197 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the second-wealthiest person in the world.
In February 2024, Bezos sold 24 million shares in Amazon at a total value of $4 billion and announced plans to sell 50 million shares over the next year.
In March 2024, Jeff Bezos donated $50 million each to actress Eva Longoria and retired admiral Bill McRaven.
In July 2024, Jeff Bezos held a private phone conversation with then-candidate Donald Trump, potentially setting the stage for a "Bezos-Trump alliance" before the election.
During an interview at the DealBook Summit in December 2024, Bezos said that he was dedicating 95% of his time to artificial intelligence initiatives at Amazon.
In 2024, Bezos' ownership of the Post has been subject to scrutiny and criticism regarding his treatment of employees as well as his influence on the paper's content, in particular interference with the editorial and opinion pages.
In 2024, Jeff Bezos blocked the Washington Post's editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris in the presidential election, leading to criticism and resignations and cancellations of subscriptions.
In 2024, Jeff Bezos worked to foster a positive relationship with Donald Trump to further his business interests, supporting many of Trump's policies.
In January 2025, editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from the Post after it refused to run a satirical cartoon critical of the relationship between American billionaires and President Donald Trump, sparking conversations about the paper's ownership under Bezos.
In February 2025, Jeff Bezos announced that the opinion section of the Post will only publish opinions supporting "personal liberties" and "free markets", leading to the resignation of opinion editor David Shipley and a significant loss of digital subscribers.
In February 2025, it was reported that Jeff Bezos had dinner with Donald Trump and announced changes to the Washington Post's opinion policies to promote "free markets and personal liberties," which was seen as a sign of his growing closeness with Trump.
As of May 2025, Bezos's estimated net worth was US$220.9 billion, making him the third richest individual in the world.
In March 2018, Bezos and Mohammad bin Salman discussed investment opportunities for Saudi Vision 2030.
WhatsApp is a widely-used instant messaging and VoIP service owned...
Bill Gates is an American businessman and philanthropist who co-founded...
Donald John Trump is an American politician media personality and...
Nigeria is a West African country officially known as the...
Google LLC is a multinational technology company specializing in online...
Bernie Sanders is a prominent American politician currently serving as...
9 days ago Micron Technology (MU) Stock: Investment Surge and Positive Q3 Preview Analysis.
44 minutes ago Ben Simmons: Free Agency Options, Hawks Redemption Arc, and Future NBA Prospects
45 minutes ago Colin Farrell Lauds Rhenzy Feliz; Interviews Danny DeVito About Penguin Roles.
2 hours ago Linda McMahon fights trans inclusion in women's sports; Title IX violations targeted.
2 hours ago Svitolina vs. Haddad Maia: Bad Homburg Open 2025 Round of 16 Preview
1 month ago Maya Joint, 19, clinches first WTA title at Rabat Open before French Open.
Sergio Gor is a Maltese American businessman and political operative...
Cristiano Ronaldo often called CR is a Portuguese professional footballer...
Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet from the Sun...
Donald John Trump is an American politician media personality and...
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen is a prominent German politician...
Benjamin Netanyahu is a prominent Israeli politician currently serving as...