JEFF BEZOS

Founder of Amazon

Jeffrey Preston Bezos, born on January 12, 1964, is an American businessman, media proprietor, and investor. He is renowned as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. With a staggering net worth of approximately US$199.1 billion as of March 2, 2024, Bezos holds the title of the wealthiest person in the world. His financial supremacy extended from 2017 to 2021, as confirmed by both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes .

Bezos’s journey began in Albuquerque, but he spent his formative years in Houston and Miami. In 1986, he graduated from Princeton University, earning degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. His subsequent career led him to Wall Street, where he worked across various related fields until early 1994.

The pivotal moment arrived during a road trip from New York City to Seattle in mid-1994 when Bezos founded Amazon. Initially conceived as an online bookstore, Amazon rapidly diversified into a wide range of e-commerce products and services. These include video and audio streaming, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Today, Amazon stands as the world’s largest online sales company, the largest Internet company by revenue, and the leading provider of virtual assistants and cloud infrastructure services through its Amazon Web Services branch.

Beyond Amazon, Bezos’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to establish Blue Origin, an aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company, in 2000. Notably, Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle achieved space travel in 2015, successfully returning to Earth. Bezos himself embarked on a space voyage aboard Blue Origin NS-16 in 2021.

In 2013, Bezos made headlines by acquiring The Washington Post, a major American newspaper, for a sum of $250 million. His investment portfolio extends further through Bezos Expeditions, a venture capital firm. Additionally, in September 2021, he co-founded Altos Labs alongside Yuri Milner, the founder of Mail.ru.

Jeff Bezos’s financial prowess earned him the distinction of being the first centibillionaire on the Forbes Real Time Billionaires Index. He is only the second individual to achieve this feat since Bill Gates. His legacy as a visionary entrepreneur and influential figure continues to shape the business landscape worldwide.

Reference: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos