- Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. He stepped down as CEO to become executive chairman in July 2021.
- Bezos sold $8.8 billion worth of his Amazon stock in 2021 and also gave some shares away; he now owns a bit less than 10% of the company.
- Amazon faced criticism from U.S. senators and the general public for its treatment of warehouse workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
- He and his wife MacKenzie divorced in 2019 after 25 years of marriage and he transferred a quarter of his then-16% Amazon stake to her.
- Bezos owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company developing rockets; he briefly flew to space in one in July 2021.
Wealth History
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Personal Stats
Age58
Source of WealthAmazon, Self Made
Self-Made Score8
Philanthropy Score1
ResidenceSeattle, Washington
CitizenshipUnited States
Marital StatusIn Relationship
Children4
EducationBachelor of Arts/Science, Princeton University
Did you know
Growing up, Jeff Bezos worked summers on his grandfather's ranch repairing Caterpillar tractors.
Bezos met Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 and managed to become one of the company's first angel investors, putting in an estimated $250,000.
In Their Own Words
I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all.
Jeff Bezos
Related People & Companies
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(NEXSTAR) – Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO of Amazon — the $1.6 trillion company he founded in 1994 — in Q3 of 2021, the company announced Tuesday. But even without helming Amazon, Bezos has enough wealth to last him several lifetimes times over.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 57-year-old Bezos was worth a whopping $196.2 billion, according to Forbes.
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.
- He could purchase 58,047,337.2781 shares of Amazon stock.
- Every single American could receive a $597 check.
- He could donate $25,764 to each resident of Washington State, where Amazon is headquartered.
- He could pay every person on Earth $25.
- Once a month for the next year, he could drop $16,350,000.
- Once a week for the next year, he could spend $3,762,736,633.
- If he spent $1 billion every single day for the next month, he’d still have $165 billion leftover.
In the fall, Bezos will be replaced by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon’s cloud-computing business. Bezos will then become the company’s executive chair.
Amazon is one of the last of the biggest tech giants to have a founder as CEO. Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin relinquished their executive positions in parent company Alphabet in 2019. Oracle’s Larry Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014. Bill Gates was Microsoft’s CEO until 2000, kept a day-to-day role at the company until 2008 and served as its chairman until 2014. Gates left the board entirely last year to focus on philanthropy.
In a blog post to employees, Bezos said he plans to focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon. And he said he’ll have more time for side projects: his space exploration company Blue Origin; the newspaper he owns, The Washington Post; and his charities.
Launched in 1994, Amazon was a pioneer of fast and free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything. Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a more common sight in many living rooms.
As a child, Bezos was intrigued by computers and interested in building things, such as alarms he rigged in his parents’ home. He got a degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, and then worked at several Wall Street companies.
He quit his job at D.E. Shaw to start an online retail business — though at first he wasn’t sure what to sell. Bezos quickly determined that an online bookstore would resonate with consumers. He and his wife, MacKenzie, whom he met at D.E. Shaw and married in 1993, set out on a road trip to Seattle — a city chosen for its abundance of tech talent and proximity to a large book distributor in Roseburg, Oregon.
While MacKenzie drove, Bezos wrote up the business plan for what would become Amazon.com. Bezos convinced his parents and some friends to invest in the idea, and Amazon began operating out of the Bezos’ Seattle garage on July 16, 1995.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Jeff Bezos announced on February 2nd that he’d be leaving the CEO job at Amazon. In the announcement, he signaled he’d be pursuing his “other passions,” which include the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, and The Washington Post. Well, it’s nice to have hobbies!
The real pressing question, though, is what Bezos is going to do with all that money. Forbes pegs his net worth around $193.2 billion as of the close of trading on February 8th, though it’s possible it’s gone up since this writing. That’s more money than most people’s brains can process! For instance, last year, Bezos’ ex-wife, Mackenzie Scott, gave away $4 billion in four months — and her net worth is only a paltry $60 billion by comparison.
Anyway, here are some suggestions of how Bezos can spend his money, in case he is too busy with his other commitments to come up with ideas on his own. In all cases, I have rounded down, leaving Bezos with at least a hundred million dollars to live out his own life — I don’t expect him to be uncomfortable.