Globally, Jeff Bezos is the third-richest person, with his fortune eclipsing the wealth of Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates andlegendary investor Warren Buffett. As of May 2023, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lists his net worth as $139 billion.
Bezos is the founder, former chief executive officer (CEO), and now executive chair of the global e-commerce company Amazon. The company accountedfor 6.5% of all U.S. retail sales and 44.9% of digital retail spending in 2022. As digitalization and the cloud computing revolution reshapes human behavior, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is forecasted to propel higher.
In May 2023, Bezos reportedly got engaged to Emmy-winning journalist, Lauren Sanchez, according to People. The couple made their relationship public in 2019, after Bezos filed for divorce from his wife of 25 years, Mackenzie Scott.
Scott, who helped Bezos found Amazon, received a 4% stake in the company, worth $36 billion at the time of their divorce. Bezos and his ex-wife reportedly did not have a prenuptial agreement, according to People. However, there are reports that Bezos will likely have a prenup with Lauren Sanchez, according to SheKnows.
Raised by a teen mom and Cuban immigrant stepfather, Bezos once toldhis schoolteachers, “the future of mankind is not on this planet.” Jeff Bezos' boss discouraged his resigning from his stable job as a hedge fund executive with D. E. Shaw & Co. to start Amazon in 1994.
Key Takeaways
Jeff Bezos’ net worth is $139 billion as of May 2023, making him the third-richest person in the world.
Bezos is the founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Amazon. He remains the executive chair of the company.
He holds traditional investments, such as real estate, and shares in other companies.
Bezos has funded several education projects through the Bezos Family Foundation.
On July 20, 2021, Bezos and three others boarded the New Shepard spacecraft and completed the first successful crewed flight of his space exploration company, Blue Origin.
Amazon: Beyond Books
Jeff Bezos graduated from Princeton University with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering.Upon graduating,he turned down offers from Intel and Bell Labs to join a startup called Fitel. He helped launch a news-by-fax service company with Halsey Minor, the founder of CNET, which failed and led Bezos to become the youngest senior vice president at a hedge fund called D. E. Shaw.
Bezos was enthralled that the Internet was growing at 2,300% annually in 1994, and hisidea for Amazon was born.Amazon.com, a platform for selling books, grew out of a garage with his $10,000 investment. Bezos, his wife, and twoprogrammers conducted most meetings at the neighborhood Barnes & Noble.After launching in July 1995, Amazon sold books in every U.S. state and 45 countries.
Beating Expectations
Bezos tried to raise capital by estimating $74 million in sales by 2000, far below the reality: $1.64 billion in sales in 1999 alone. He gathered $1 million in seed funding from angel investors after investments from his family.The first approximately 20 investors in Amazon with a $50,000 stake rounded to 1% would grow to be worth $3.5 billion, representing a 70-times return in about 20 years.
In June 1996, Amazon raised another $8 million in Series A from venture capital firm KleinerPerkins. Amazon went public in May 1997and was one of the few startups thatsurvivedthe dot-com bust. Annual sales skyrocketed from $511,000 in 1995 to over $3 billion in 2001.
Amazon’s share price reflects its phenomenal growth. The stock increased about 450% from January 2016 to January 2021 and rose 60% from January 2020 to January 2021 alone. Bezosowns 12.7% of Amazon as of 2022, making it a source of his wealth. The company’s 2022 annual meeting announcement showed Bezosowning more than 64.5 million shares.
$514 billion
Amazon boasted $514 billionin net sales in the 2022 fiscal year.
Real Estate
Jeff Bezos has holdings in traditional investments, such as real estate. His 165,000-acre Corn Ranch in Texas was acquired as the base of operations for his aerospace company, Blue Origin, and serves as the test site for the vertical-landing, manned, suborbital New Shepard rocket.
His homes include multimillion-dollar holdings on the East and West Coasts in Beverly Hills and Manhattan. Bezos’ New York presence is reported to have boosted Century Tower property values, with space selling for $2,000 to $3,000 per square foot. He also has a lakeside property in Washington state, on which he spent $28 million to increase the living space to almost 30,000 square feet.
In 2012, Amazon bought its own South Lake Union headquarters building in Seattle for $1.5 billion, making it one of the largest commercial property owners. Amazon took possession of nearly a dozen buildings, almost 2 million square feet of office space, and approximately 100,000 square feet of retail space. In August 2017, The Seattle TimesreportedAmazon had as much office space as the region's 40 largest employers combined, at 8.1 million square feet.
Charitable Donations
Jeff Bezos has invested sizable sums in charitable donations. In addition to the Bezos Family Foundation funding several education projects, Bezos has made multimillion-dollar charitable contributions to Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry and his alma mater, Princeton University.
In January 2018, Bezos and his now ex-wife,MacKenzie, pledged $33 million to TheDream.US, an organization working to improve college access forundocumented immigrant youth brought to the United States as young children. The grantprovides college scholarships to 1,000 U.S. high school graduateswith Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)status.
Media, High Tech, Glass, and Travel
Bezos has an affinity for the technology sector and media and communication services that connect people. Bezos invested in Twitter Inc. and the popular business news website Business Insider. In 1998, Bezosbecame an early investor in Google. While he hasn’t revealed what amount of thestock he owns after its initial public offering in 2004, his $250,000 investment is likely worth billions today. Zocdoc Inc. and Nextdoor are platforms for connecting people in which Bezos has also invested.
Jeff Bezos has invested more than $30 million in the transportation company Uber. One of his notable investment successes is Workday Inc. which provides human resource servicesin the cloud. Shortly after Bezos’ venture capital investment in the company, it went public in aninitial public offering (IPO) that garnered more than $684 million. Bezos has also invested in glassybaby, which makes glass-blown holders for votive candles.
In August 2013, Bezosbought The Washington Post for $250 million. Its audience and traffic exploded, surpassing The New York Times for the first time in terms of U.S. unique web viewers in October 2015.
The Way-out-There Ideas
In 2013, Bezosrevealed his plans for the company’s revolutionary Amazon Prime subscription business would use drones to make deliveries to customers. In 2022, the first Amazon Prime Air drone deliveries began servicing limited areas with plans for future expansion.
Bezo invested in the 10,000-year clock project to build a clock into the side of the Sierra Diablo mountain range in Texas and ticking for 10,000 years. The clock will have a chime generator that generates a different chime sound each day. Bezos explainedthe clock's need by saying today’s global problems require “long-term thinking.”
The F-1 engine retrieval project salvaged engines that powered the Apollo 11 flight to the moon from the Atlantic Ocean. Artifacts were recovered to fashion displays out of two F-1 engines. The artifacts were donated to The Museum of Flight in Seattle in 2015. With his booming wealth, Bezos fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a space entrepreneur.
Each year, Bezos commits $1 billionto his space exploration company, Blue Origin, which,in 2016, became one of the first commercial companies to launch a reusable rocket. OnJuly 18, 2018, Blue Origin sent the New Shepard spacecraft to a high altitude to test its safety systems, which worked. On July 20, 2021, Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and Dutch student Oliver Daemen boarded the New Shepard and completed Blue Origin’s first successful crewed flight, reaching an altitude of just above 62 miles before landing safely.
How Much Money Does Jeff Bezos Have?
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $139 billion as of May 2023. Given that his 12.7% Amazon stake accounts for a large portion of his wealth, his net worth can fluctuate significantly depending on the value of the company’s stock.
What Companies Does Jeff Bezos Own?
In addition to founding Amazon, Bezos also owns The Washington Post and space exploration company Blue Origin.
What Companies Are in Jeff Bezos’ Stock Portfolio?
In addition to his 12.7% stake in Amazon, Bezos has also invested in Twitter Inc. (now X Corp), Uber, Airbnb, and Business Insider.
The Bottom Line
Jeff Bezos lost the title of the richest man on Earth in 2021, but he remains the third wealthiest person in 2023. Only Bernard Arnault of France, and Elon Musk, exceed Bezos' wealth. Bezos is the founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Amazon and remains its executive chair.
Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his Seattle garage. Bezos stepped down as CEO to become executive chairman in 2021. He owns a bit less than 10% of the company.
Early on investors were skeptical that consumers would buy books online. Bezos was convinced he had a great business plan. Bezos took Amazon.com public in May. The following year, he became a billionaire, debuting on The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans with a $1.6 billion net worth.
Most of Bezos' wealth stems from his shares in Amazon, which he founded in 1994 from his garage in near Seattle, Washington. Behind the success of Amazon and, in turn, its founder, is innovation, creativity, and hard work.
Jeff had a feeling that the internet was going to be very popular, so he pitched the idea of starting an online bookstore to his boss. His boss said no, so in 1994, Jeff left his hedge fund job to start Amazon. His parents invested $300,000 to help Amazon get started.
Jeff Bezos' net worth is $139 billion as of May 2023, making him the third-richest person in the world. Bezos is the founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Amazon. He remains the executive chair of the company. He holds traditional investments, such as real estate, and shares in other companies.
With money like that in the bank, Bezos could spend nearly $11 million every day for the next fifty years — or until he turns 107. Here's what else he could do with his $196.2 billion: Bezos could give every Amazon employee — all 1.13 million of them — a $173,628 bonus.
Billionaire, businessman and the chairman and chief executive of LVMH (LVMUY), Bernard Arnault holds the crown as the richest person in the world. According to Forbes, Arnault has a fortune of $234.5 billion.
It was in fact Jeff Bezos who was set to become the first trillionaire. However, he is now forecasted to reach US$1.06 trillion in 2030, six years behind Musk in sixth place.
Musk's wealth was bolstered after a deal with investors boosted the value of SpaceX in excess of $100 billion, according to Bloomberg. His net worth hit $223 billion after the agreement, and gave him an additional $10.6 billion. This put him well past Bezos whose net worth is a paltry $191.6 billion in comparison.
The American business magazine Forbes produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an Internet version of this list in real-time. The American oil magnate John D.Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed U.S. dollar billionaire in 1916.
Bill Gates became the world's youngest-ever billionaire at the age of 31 in 1987. In 1995, he became the world's richest man with a net worth of $12.9 billion.
Austin Russell, the 28-year-old CEO of California-based Luminar Technologies, remains the world's youngest self-made billionaire, with a net worth of US$1.
As reported by British tabloids, in the mid 1990s Jeff approached his parents with a proposal to invest in his new internet business venture. They ultimately loaned him US$245,000 in 1995, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Amazon was founded in the garage of Bezos' rented home in Bellevue, Washington. Bezos' parents invested almost $250,000 in the start-up. On July 16, 1995, Amazon opened as an online bookseller, selling the world's largest collection of books to anyone with World Wide Web access.
Jeff Bezos has committed to giving most of his money to charity, making him the latest mega-philanthropist. Some people in philanthropy and activist circles are skeptical.
He is estimated to have invested in more than 95 companies and startups, ranging from healthcare to aerospace. Bezos is an active investor, often investing in early-stage startups that have huge potential for growth.
Bezos, who founded the then virtual bookstore out of his garage in 1994, received a salary of $81,840 for his role as founder and executive chairman as well as $1.6 million in security costs.
A Facebook post claimed that if Bezos' net worth reached $1 trillion, "he could literally end world poverty and give everyone $1 billion and he will still have $91.5 billion left." This math doesn't work out. If Bezos shared his wealth of $149.5 billion equally across the globe, each person would receive about $19.
The 58-year-old, the world's fourth richest person, according to Forbes billionaires list, made the pledge after giving $100m to the country singer Dolly Parton to give to charities of her choice as part of Bezos's annual Courage and Civility award.
Dolly Parton just received the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, which comes with $100 million from Jeff Bezos for her to give away. Jeff Bezos announced he is donating $100 million to singer and philanthropist Dolly Parton for her to give away to the charitable groups she chooses.
In broader terms, the finance and investment profession has the most millionaires. It also has the most billionaires, with 371. Here's a list of the seven best careers if you want to be a millionaire.
Who is the richest man in the world? As of June 1, 2023, the richest man in the world is Bernard Arnault, the CEO and chairman of LVMH of France; he's worth $215 billion. He moved into the number one spot after Elon Musk's fortune fell in late 2022 as shares of electric carmaker Tesla fell.
1. Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan one of the most fearsome conquerors of all time, and by the end of his life the Mongol Empire occupied a vast empire from Central Asia to China. Much of the wealth came from plunders, taxes and control of caravan routes along the Silk Road and provide the Mongols with valuable revenue.
For a long time, Musk seemed to be the consensus choice to become the first person to reach a $1 trillion net worth. After all, his wealth was on a seemingly meteoric rise, and he was at one point valued at over $200 billion.
In 2020, with Americans dying in large numbers from the pandemic, Bezos had become to billionaire wealth hoarding what Barry Bonds had become to home run records. As noted by USA Today, the reporting on Bezos becoming the first trillionaire occurred when Amazon workers were publicly protesting over safety issues.
Musk's remarkable jump in wealth is linked to his ownership stake in electric car maker Tesla, and to a lesser extent his holdings in ventures including Space X and Boring Company.
The longtime rivalry between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos spans over 15 years. Publicly butting heads since 2004, the billionaires have taken part in unfriendly discourse over the years.
The Walton family knows its way around some retail revenue. Its namesake, mega-retailer Walmart, has an estimated global revenue of $611.3 billion. As the family owns nearly half of the company, they should be quite comfortable for generations to come.
Madam C. J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919) was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. She is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records.
quadrillionaire (plural quadrillionaires) Somebody whose wealth is greater than one quadrillion units of the local currency. quotations ▼ (by extension) An extremely wealthy person.
Max Fosh soon realised that he needed to dissolve his company immediately as he was being accused of fraud by authorities in the UK. He has shared a video of how he made this happen and also why he had to shut his company down. Though he claims, he was the world's richest person for 7 minutes on paper.
In this bestselling book, Conor O'Clery reveals the inspiring life story of Chuck Feeney, known as the "James Bond of philanthropy." Feeney was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to a blue-collar Irish-American family during the Depression.
Despite being the fourth-wealthiest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos has refrained from setting a target amount to give away in his lifetime. Bezos has committed $10 billion over 10 years, or about 8% of his current net worth, to the Bezos Earth Fund, which Sánchez co-chairs.
The family of Jeff Bezos, the business magnate, is a prominent American family active in business and philanthropy. Jeff Bezos and his former wife Mackenzie Scott were the co-founders of Amazon.com. Family members have Danish-American, Mexican American and Cuban heritage.
Elon Musk rocketed to billionaire status, after entering the elite club in 2012 just nine years later he tops the list. His wealth is based mainly on his shareholdings in the electric car firm Tesla, of which he is the CEO.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Wednesday saw his net worth soar above $202 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the first person to cross the $200 billion threshold.
Early in his career, Bezos realised that the Internet was likely to transform the world in the coming years, and he decided to quit his safe job working on Wall Street and set up Amazon, which started life as an online bookstore. This was a bold move; almost no one had done anything like this at the time.
In 1995, Bezos went to his parents with a proposition to help him fund his new website Amazon.com. They lent him $245,573, which was an expensive gamble considering how new the internet was at the time.
Elon Musk rocketed to billionaire status, after entering the elite club in 2012 just nine years later he tops the list. His wealth is based mainly on his shareholdings in the electric car firm Tesla, of which he is the CEO.
A trillion is such a huge number, followed by twelve zeros. That is one thousand times a billion (nine zeros followed by 1). Do you know that only 6 trillionaires ever lived on the face of earth? As of today, there are no trillionaires who live on earth.
The richest person ever is thought to have been an emperor with an accumulation of wealth often described as “unimaginable” or “incalculable.” The title goes to 14th-century African emperor Mansa Musa, and his wealth has been estimated to be the modern day equivalent of $400 billion.
Mackenzie Bezos was awarded 25% of their Amazon shares valued at over 38 billion dollars. Other terms of the divorce settlement were not immediately disclosed.
Jeff Bezos has committed to giving most of his money to charity, making him the latest mega-philanthropist. Some people in philanthropy and activist circles are skeptical.
Still, many of today's billionaires had very humble beginnings. Growing up poor didn't stop these CEOs, celebrities and business experts from reaching the pinnacle of success — and it shouldn't stop you, either.
Undoubtedly, working as an entrepreneur is one of the best careers that can make you a billionaire. From tech to media and retail to healthcare, 10-digit fortunes have been forged in numerous industries.
Let's try to understand Elon's level of IQ now that we know the obvious answer to that question. Elon Musk has a 155 IQ, which is regarded as being quite high. He is therefore more creative and quick to find solutions to issues than most people.
Introduction: My name is Greg Kuvalis, I am a witty, spotless, beautiful, charming, delightful, thankful, beautiful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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