Jeff Bezos Net Worth and Biography

Jeff Bezos is an American entrepreneur and business magnate with an estimated net worth of $135 Billion, making him the second richest man in the world, behind Elon Musk. He was the wealthiest man in the world from 2017 to 2021 according to the Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index and Forbes. Here is a detailed analysis of how Jeff Bezos accumulated his net worth to become one of the wealthiest men in the world.

Bio Data

Biography

Jeff Bezos was born on the 12th of January 2012 in was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico but was raised in Houston and Miami. He attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade before the family moved to Miami, Florida, where Bezos attended Miami Palmetto High School.

While in high school, Jeff Bezos displayed scientific interests and technological proficiency. He once rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room.  In his graduation speech, Bezos told the audience he dreamed of the day when mankind would colonize space.

Jeff furthered his education at Princeton University where he bagged a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (B.S.E.) in electrical engineering and computer science. After graduating from college in 1986, He worked at Fitel, a fintech telecommunications start-up, where he was tasked with building a network for international trade. He was promoted to head of development and director of customer service thereafter.

Jeff transitioned into the banking industry when he became a product manager at Bankers Trust. He worked there from 1988 to 1990. He then joined D. E. Shaw & Co, in 1990 and worked there until 1994, before venturing into business and entrepreneurialism

Business Career

Amazon

Jeff Bezos alongside his then-wife Scott Mackizen founded Amazon as an online book store on July 5, 1994. The company was initially named Cadabra but later changed to Amazon after the Amazon River in South America.  Jeff noted that the name change was because “Amazon” begins with the letter A. At the time, website listings were alphabetized, so a name starting with “A” would appear sooner when customers conducted online searches.

Prior to the company going public in 1997, Jeff warned many early investors that there was a 70% chance that Amazon would fail or go bankrupt. Although Amazon was originally an online bookstore, Bezos had always planned to expand to other products.

In 1998, Bezos diversified into the online sale of music and video, and by the end of the year, he had expanded the company’s products to include a variety of other consumer goods.  The company launched Amazon Web Services in 2002 and Amazon Kindle in 2007.

Prior to these the company had almost gone bankrupt in 2002, due to rapid spending and stagnated revenue. Jeff Bezos however closed distribution centres and laid off 14% of the Amazon workforce. The company rebounded from financial instability in 2003 and was recognized as the largest online shopping retailer in the world in 2013.

In 2021, Jeff Bezos stepped down from his role as CEO of Amazon, to become the Executive Chairman of the Amazon Board. He was replaced as CEO by Andy Jassy

Blue Origin

In September 2000, Bezos founded Blue Origin, a human spaceflight startup. After its founding, Blue Origin maintained a low profile until 2006 when it purchased a large tract of land in West Texas for a launch and test facility.

In 2015, Bezos announced that a new orbital launch vehicle was under development and would make its first flight in the late-2010s. Later in November, Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle successfully rocketed into space and reached its planned test altitude of 329,839 feet (100.5 kilometres) before executing a vertical landing back at the launch site in West Texas.

In December 2017, New Shepard successfully flew and landed dummy passengers, amending and pushing its human space travel start date into late 2018. In May 2018, Bezos maintained that the primary goal of Blue Origin is to preserve the natural resources of Earth by making the human species multi-planetary.

He announced that New Shepard would begin transporting humans into sub-orbital space by November 2018. On July 20, 2021, he launched the NS-16 mission with his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen.

Washington Post  and Bezos Expeditions

In 2013 Jeff Bezos announced his purchase of The Washington Post for $250 million in cash. To execute the sale, he established a limited liability company Nash Holdings to serve as a holding company through which he owns the newspaper.

Jeff Bezos makes personal investments through his venture capital vehicle, Bezos Expeditions.  He was one of the first shareholders in Google when he invested $250,000 in 1998. That $250,000 investment resulted in 3.3 million shares of Google stock, worth about $3.1 billion in 2017. He also invested in Unity Biotechnology, a life-extension research firm hoping to slow or stop the process of ageing.

Jeff also uses the Bezos Expeditions to fund several philanthropic projects, such as the Innovation centre at the Seattle Museum of History and Industry and the Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics at Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

Jeff Bezos Net worth

Presently Jeff Bezos has an estimated net worth of $135 Billion, making him the second richest man on the planet. He made his first million in 1997  after raising $54 million through Amazon’s initial public offering (IPO). He was first included on the Forbes World’s Billionaires list in 1999 with a registered net worth of $10.1 billion

His net worth decreased to $6.1 billion a year later. His wealth plummeted, even more, the following year, dropping to $2.0 billion.  Jeff Bezos lost $500 million the following year, which brought his net worth down to $1.5 billion. The following year, Jeffnet worth increased to $2.5 billion.

From 2005 to 2007, Jeff Bezos quadrupled his net worth to $8.7 billion. After the financial crisis and succeeding economic recession, his net worth decreased to $6.8 billion in 2009. His wealth rose by 85.2% in 2010, leaving him with $12.6 billion. This percentage increase ascended him to the 43rd spot on the ranking from 68th.

In 2014,  Jeff Bezos had an estimated net worth of $30.5 billion in 2014, he, however, broke into the top 10 the following year, taking fifth place with an estimated net worth of 50.3 billion. He became the third richest man in the world behind Warren Buffet and Bill Gates in 2016, having an estimated net worth of $72.8 billion.

In 2018 Jeff Bezos, with an estimated net worth of $112 billion, unseated Bill Gates as the richest man in the world. He is considered the first registered centi-billionaire and the “wealthiest person in modern history”. He however lost a huge percentage of his net worth following the divorce from his wife MacKenzie Bezos in 2019. She received 25% of Bezos’s Amazon shares, valued at approximately $36 billion, making her the third richest woman in the world.