Jeff Bezos is an American philanthropist, entrepreneur, and space explorer best known for founding Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos is the founder, CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of Amazon.com. In July 2017, he topped Bill Gates in terms of wealth for the first time. Between October 2017 and January 2021, he was the world’s richest person without a break. As of this writing Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $127 billion.
According to Amazon’s most recent SEC filing, Jeff holds 55 million shares of the business, or around 12% of the total shares outstanding. At one point, he held 80 million Amazon shares. Jeff handed 19.7 million shares to his ex-wife as part of his divorce settlement with MacKenzie Bezos in April 2019. The shares were worth $36 billion at the time of the transfer. Jeff’s net worth was temporarily cut from $150 billion to $114 billion as a result of the settlement. Jeff was also an early pre-IPO investor in Google.com and today owns at least $1 billion in Alphabet Inc.
For much of the 2000s, Jeff was not even among the top 10 or top 20 of the world’s richest individuals. In late 2014, Amazon’s stock began to skyrocket. Jeff’s net worth was $50 billion in July 2015. In less than two years, his net worth had more than doubled.
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On July 27, 2017, Bezos surpassed Bill Gates as the world’s richest person. Amazon’s market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion in September 2018. He still possessed 80 million shares prior to his divorce. Jeff’s net worth surpassed the then-all-time high of $170 billion at that moment.
Early Life
Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on January 12, 1964. Jeff’s mother was a 17-year-old high school student when he was born. His father had a bicycle business. Jeff’s biological mother finally divorced his birth father. She married a Cuban immigrant called Miguel Bezos when he was four years old. Miguel adopted Jeff soon after the wedding, and Jeff’s surname was officially changed from Jorgenson to Bezos. Mike found a position as an engineer for Exxon in Houston, so the family relocated. They were also near his mother’s parents’ cattle property south of San Antonio. His maternal grandmother, Mattie Louise Gise, was George Strait’s first cousin.’
Bezos utilized his parents’ garage as a laboratory for his science pursuits as a child in Texas. He also spent his summers working on his grandparents’ property. Jeff would subsequently say that his work ethic was formed during his summers at the ranch. He would subsequently buy the ranch and increase its size from 25,000 to 300,000 acres.
Around the time Jeff started high school, the family relocated to Miami. Jeff worked as a short order cook at McDonald’s while in high school. He was the valedictorian of his high school and a National Merit Scholar. In his valedictorian speech, he voiced a wish that humans might one day inhabit space.
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He went to Princeton University intending to study physics, but his interest in computers led him to change his major. He finally finished with a 4.2 GPA and Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and electrical engineering.
Jeff started to work at Fitel, a financial technology startup, after graduating from college. He subsequently moved into the banking business, landing a product management position at Bankers Trust. He was employed as a financial analyst for D. E. Shaw & Co. in 1990, a hedge fund that had recently established with the assumption that mathematical modeling might anticipate large market profits.
Amazon
Jeff had been captivated with the embryonic internet a year before. He wanted to sell something online and settled on books. During a cross-country trip from New York to Seattle, Bezos developed Amazon’s business model. He formally established the company in 1994, starting it in his garage.
Other Accomplishments
Bezos was voted Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 1999, and he got an honorary degree in Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. Bezos created Blue Origin, a human spaceflight startup firm, in 2000, partly due to his obsession with space travel. Blue Origin’s early enthusiasm in creating space hotels, amusement parks, colonies, and miniature cities for 2 million or 3 million people orbiting the Earth is reflected in the company’s name. The corporation was kept secret for a few years until becoming public in 2006, after acquiring a large tract of land in west Texas for a launch and testing site.
Real Estate and Assets
Jeff and MacKenzie paid $24.5 million for a Beverly Hills property on two outstanding acres in 2007. They paid $12.9 million for the house next door in 2018. As part of their 2019 divorce settlement, MacKenzie obtained this now-joined two-home property. MacKenzie revealed in August 2022 that she had given the homes to the California Community Foundation. The combined property was valued an estimated $55 million at the time of the donation.
Net Worth Details
Bezos has sold at least $70 billion in Amazon stock in the 20 years since it went public. Every year, he sells around $1 billion in shares as part of a scheduled stock sale agreement.
Amazon’s market worth was $300 million on the day it went public. Jeff was worth $120 million at the time since he controlled 40% of the firm. He was worth $1 billion in a year. Jeff’s net worth surpassed $10 billion at the height of the dotcom bubble. Amazon’s stock price plummeted to an all-time low of $5 per share in October 2001, after the bubble burst. Jeff’s net worth has dropped to $1-2 billion at that moment.
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