He transitioned into the banking industry when he became a product manager at Bankers Trust from 1988 to 1990. [146][147] His physical appearance increased the public's perception of him as a symbolically dominant figure in business and in popular culture, wherein he has been parodied as an enterprising supervillain. [62] In October of that year, Amazon was recognized as the largest online shopping retailer in the world. [41][42], After Bezos graduated from college in 1986, he was offered jobs at Intel, Bell Labs, and Andersen Consulting, among others. Sports media company Overtime has secured an $80 million fundraising round with investors including Jeff Bezos investment firm, global entertainer Drake, Jeff Bezos Bezos not only invested in the real estate startup's seed round in 2021, but he doubled down on that investment during the company's series A last year. But he's now out of the NFL and working as the head coach of the XFL's Houston Roughnecks And Phillips - part of a first family of football in Houston thanks to [104] Since 2016, Bezos has spoken more freely about his hopes to colonize the solar system, and has been selling US$1 billion in Amazon stock each year to capitalize Blue Origin in an effort to support this endeavor. [137], Bezos uses the term "worklife harmony" instead of the more standard "worklife balance" because he believes that balance implies that you can only have one and not the other. [74] Amazon's share price fell by 9% in response to the President's negative comments; this reduced Bezos's personal wealth by $10.7billion. [52] He accepted an estimated $300,000 from his parents as investment in Amazon. [112] In March 2014, Bezos made his first significant change at The Washington Post and lifted the online paywall for subscribers of a number of U.S. local newspapers in Texas, Hawaii, and Minnesota. [201] His net worth surpassed $100billion for the first time on November 24, 2017, after Amazon's share price increased by more than 2.5%. [63], In May 2016, Bezos sold slightly more than one million shares of his holdings in the company for $671million, the largest sum he had ever raised from selling some of his Amazon stock. Jeff Bezos happy with the success of 'New World' after several [204], On March 6, 2018, Bezos was designated the wealthiest person in the world, with a registered net worth of $112billion. That $250,000 investment resulted in 3.3million shares of Google stock, worth about $3.1billion in 2017. WebForbes estimates that Bezos has donated $2.4 billionless than 2% of his total net worthto charitable causes during his lifetime. [98] He has been compared to Branson and Elon Musk as all three are billionaires who prioritize spaceflight among their business interests. [190] From 2005 to 2007, he quadrupled his net worth to $8.7billion. Teds grandfather had immigrated from now Denmark to Chicago around 1900. Jeff Bezos [94] After the company gained the public's attention during the late 2000s, Bezos additionally indicated his interest in reducing the cost of space travel for humans while also increasing the safety of extraterrestrial travel. [186] His net worth decreased to $6.1billion a year later, a 40.5% drop. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. "Bezos" redirects here. [271][272] 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. [198] However, just months later in October 2016, his wealth increased by $16.2billion to $66.5billion, unofficially ranking him the third-richest person in the world, behind Warren Buffett. Mark remembers his brother being extremely thin and basically eating whatever he wanted. [45][246] In 1994, they moved across the country to Seattle, Washington, where Bezos founded Amazon. [91] The 18-year-old Bezos stated that he wanted to preserve Earth from overuse through resource depletion. Born in Albuquerque and raised in Houston and Miami, Bezos graduated from Princeton University in 1986. 2023 CNBC LLC. [251][252] All survived; Bezos sustained only minor injuries and was discharged from a local hospital the same day. [288] On June 15, 2017, he posted a message on Twitter asking for ideas for philanthropy: "I'm thinking about a philanthropy strategy that is the opposite of how I mostly spend my timeworking on the long term". Jeff Bezos Didn't Have to Pay Income Taxes for 2 Years: The fundraising comes more than a month after Overtime announced a paid basketball league for young players. Jeff Bezos Facts Jeffrey Preston Bezos (/bezos/ BAY-zohss;[2] n Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. [101] He has repeatedly called for increased inter-space energy and industrial manufacturing to decrease the negative costs associated with business-related pollution. Jeff Bezos [227], In June 2019, Bezos purchased three adjoining apartments overlooking Madison Square Park in Manhattan, including a penthouse, for a combined total of US$80million, making this one of the most expensive real estate purchases within New York City in 2019. "I don't want to drag anybody around," he said . Jeff Bezos Aaron Rodgers Answers 'Diva' Question; ESPN Conflicting [45][51] Three years after Bezos founded Amazon, he took it public with an initial public offering (IPO). [39], Bezos portrayed a Starfleet official in the 2016 movie Star Trek Beyond, and joined the cast and crew at a San Diego Comic-Con screening. [259], According to public campaign finance records, Bezos supported the electoral campaigns of Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, two Democratic U.S. senators from Washington. Since that report from November 2019, Bezos' ties with the NFL have only grown. Bezos affinity for the Seahawks goes back to 2019 when he attempted to woo the owners into selling the franchise to him. [260] Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos have supported the legalization of same-sex marriage, and in 2012 contributed $2.5million to Washington United for Marriage, a group supporting a yes vote on Washington Referendum 74, which affirmed a same-sex marriage law enacted in the state. ", "Why Trump went after Bezos: Two billionaires across a cultural divide", "9 Shocking Anecdotes That Reveal Jeff Bezos's Cutthroat Management Style", "How Jeff Bezos Became a Power Beyond Amazon", "Guess How Many Pillsbury Biscuits Jeff Bezos Used to Eat Daily", "How Amazon Got Swole Just Like CEO Jeff Bezos", "Jeff Bezos: The man who turned Amazon into an empire", "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stuns everyone with his macho look, Twitter users compare him with The Rock, VinDiesel", "Jeff Bezos's latest sideline has lots of people comparing him to a comic-book supervillain", "Jeff Bezos, Who Is Not A Super-Villain, Is Building A Giant Clock Inside A Mountain, Because He's NOT A Super-Villain", "On SNL, a bald Steve Carell plays Jeff Bezos and won't stop trolling Trump", "Amazon's Jeff Bezos Wins ITUC's World's Worst Boss Poll", "The Best-Performing CEOs in the World, 2019", "For Bezos, Now World's Richest, Philanthropy Is 'Saved for Later', "Amazon launches a scathing response to Times story", "Jeff Bezos responds to 'New York Times' report on Amazon's workplace", "This is the Jeff Bezos playbook for preventing Amazon's demise", "Amazon's Bezos could teach large companies a thing or two about strategy", "What Amazon's Jeff Bezos thinks about Peter Thiel and Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker", "A day in the life of the richest person in history, Jeff Bezos who made $6.44billion in one day and still washes the dishes after dinner", "This is Jeff Bezos' 3-question test for new Amazon employees", "Kevin's Week in Tech: Jeff Bezos Reminds Tech Who's Boss", "5 key business lessons from Amazon's Jeff Bezos", "What Makes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Such a Visionary Leader", "Jeff Bezos keeps his Amazon email address public here's why", "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos explains his famous one-character emails, known to strike fear in manager's hearts", "Forum on Leadership: Conversation with Jeff Bezos", "Jeffrey Preston Bezos: 1999 Person of the year", "America's Best Leaders: Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com.com CEO", "April 22: Amazon.com Founder Jeff Bezos to Speak at Carnegie Mellon Business School and Computer Science Diploma Ceremonies", "Charging ahead: e-book design and popularity win Kindle creators Innovation Award", "Amazon's Jeff Bezos: The ultimate disrupter", "Jeff Bezos on nuclear reactors in space, the lack of bacon on Mars and humanity's destiny in the solar system", "National Academy of Engineering Elects 83 Members and 16 Foreign Members", "Jeff Bezos gets a kick out of winning the first Buzz Aldrin Space Innovation Award", "Jeff Bezos responded to reports of poor working conditions at Amazon here's what he said", "Jeff Bezos: The World's 100 Most Influential People", "Emmanuel Macron criticised for giving Lgion d'honneur to Jeff Bezos", "The Age When 17 Self-Made Billionaires Earned Their First Million", "Jeff Bezos' Net Worth Rises $1.4 Billion on Rumors of 3-D Amazon Smartphone", "Jeff Bezos Just Gained $7 Billion in an Hour to Become World's Fifth Richest", "The Full List of Every American Billionaire 2016", "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Net Worth Hits Record High As Fortune Jumps $2.6 Billion", "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Is the Richest Person in the World Again", "Forbes 2017 Billionaires List: Meet The Richest People on the Planet", "Jeff Bezos Made $6.2 Billion in 5 Minutes and Became the World's Richest Person (How Was Your Thursday? "I don't want to drag anybody around," he said . [168] Bezos has cited Jeff Immelt (of New Enterprise Associates),[169] Warren Buffett (of Berkshire Hathaway), Jamie Dimon (of JPMorgan Chase), and Bob Iger (of Walt Disney) as major influences on his leadership style. We Have 4 Guesses", "Jeff Bezos to fund schools where 'child will be the customer' with new charity", "Jeff Bezos to Create $2 Billion Fund for Homeless, Preschools", "Jeff Bezos Unveils Multibillion-Dollar Plans For Charitable Giving", "Jeff Bezos donates $33million to scholarship fund for 'dreamers', "Backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, Breakthrough Energy Ventures places first bets on power storage", "Jeff Bezos donates $10million to organization that helps veterans run for office", "Amazon founder Jeff Bezos commits $10bn to fight climate change", "Jeff Bezos: World's richest man pledges $10bn to fight climate change", "Bezos Earth Fund announces first grants totaling $791M of his $10B pledge to help planet", "Bezos Earth Fund gives nearly $800 million to climate groups in first round of grants", "Jeff Bezos names first recipients of his $10 billion Earth Fund for combating climate change", "Twitter boss pledges $1bn for coronavirus relief", "Why Jeff Bezos's $100 million donation to food banks won't satisfy his critics", "Jeff Bezos Pledges $2B for Nature Conservation as World Leaders Address Deforestation, Emissions", Jeff Bezos's tuition-free preschool is expanding to new locations in Texas and Florida. In 2016, Bezos allowed select journalists to visit, tour, and photograph his facility. [95] In September 2011, one of the company's unmanned prototype vehicles crashed during a short-hop test flight. [151][bettersourceneeded] In May 2014, the International Trade Union Confederation named Bezos the "World's Worst Boss", with its general secretary Sharan Burrow saying: "Jeff Bezos represents the inhumanity of employers who are promoting the North American corporate model",[152] while in 2019, Harvard Business Review, which ranked Bezos the best-performing CEO for 4 years in a row since 2014, did not rank him even in the top 100, citing Amazon's "relatively low ESG (environment, social, and governance) scores" that reflect "risks created by working conditions and employment policies, data security, and antitrust issues. [285], In September 2018, Business Insider reported that Bezos was the only one of the top five billionaires in the world who had not signed the Giving Pledge, an initiative created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that encourages wealthy people to give away a majority of their wealth. Jeff Bezos is currently the world's second-richest man, so purchasing an NFL (National Football League) franchise wouldn't be too tall a task for the billionaire. "[159] During the 1990s and early 2000s at Amazon, he was characterized as trying to quantify all aspects of running the company, often listing employees on spreadsheets and basing executive decisions on data. [51] Bezos used the $54million raised during the company's 1997 equity offering to finance aggressive acquisition of smaller competitors. [b], His wealth, in 201718 terms, equaled that of 2.7million Americans. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen, the son of Jacklyn & Theodore Ted Jorgensen. Shaw in 1994 and moved to Washington State to start Amazon as an Internet bookstore. [306], Bezos Academy is a group of tuition-free preschools for students from low-income families, which was created by Bezos, and which operate in a manner similar to the Montessori method. [96] After the crash, Bezos has been superstitiously wearing his "lucky" Texas Cowboy boots to all rocket launches. Overtime is a media company that distributes original sports content on social media outlets, including Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook. With a net worth of US$128 billion as of February 2023, Bezos is the third-wealthiest person in the world and was the wealthiest from 2017 to 2021 according to both Bloomberg's Billionaires Index and Forbes. The Raptors Global Ambassador Drake cheers on the team as the Toronto Raptors beat the Philadelphia 76ers 101-96 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Jeff Bezos Jeff Bezos [46] He and his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, left their jobs at D. E. Shaw and founded Amazon in a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington on July 5, 1994, after writing its business plan on a cross-country drive from New York City to Seattle.