Jeffrey Preston Bezos (born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman and the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes, he was the world's wealthiest person from 2017 to 2021, and in 2026, his net worth was approximately US$284 billion. He also founded the aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin in 2000 and purchased The Washington Post in 2013.
Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and raised in Houston and Miami. He graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with a degree in engineering. After working on Wall Street in finance and technology from 1986 to 1994, he founded Amazon in mid-1994. The company began as an online bookstore and expanded into a wide range of products and services, including video and audio streaming, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Amazon is the world's largest online sales company, the largest Internet company by revenue, and a leading provider of virtual assistants and cloud infrastructure through its Amazon Web Services (AWS) branch.
Early life and education
Bezos was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Jacklyn (née Gise) and Ted Jorgensen. At the time of his birth, his mother was a 17-year-old high-school student and his father was 19. After his parents divorced in 1965, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos in 1968, who adopted Jeff, changing his surname to Bezos. The family moved to Houston, Texas, where Mike worked as an engineer for Exxon, and later to Miami, Florida.
In Houston, Bezos attended River Oaks Elementary School. He spent summers on his maternal grandfather's ranch near Cotulla, Texas, which he later purchased and expanded. In Miami, he attended Miami Palmetto High School, where he was valedictorian, a National Merit Scholar, and a Silver Knight Award winner in 1982. He also worked as a short-order cook at McDonald's during the breakfast shift.
Bezos attended Princeton University, initially majoring in physics but switching to electrical engineering and computer science. He was president of the Princeton chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) and graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, summa cum laude.
Early business career
After graduating, Bezos worked at several technology and finance firms. He first joined Fitel, a financial technology start-up, where he built networks for international trade. He then moved to Bankers Trust as a product manager from 1988 to 1990. From 1990 to 1994, he worked at D. E. Shaw & Co, a hedge fund focused on mathematical modeling, where he became a senior vice president by age 30.
Founding Amazon
In spring 1994, Bezos read that web usage was growing at 2,300% per year and decided to start an online bookstore. He and his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, left their jobs and founded Amazon on July 5, 1994, in a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington, after writing the business plan on a cross-country drive from New York City to Seattle. The company was initially named Cadabra but later renamed Amazon after the Amazon River, partly because names starting with 'A' appeared earlier in alphabetical listings.
Amazon launched as an online bookstore and rapidly expanded into other products. Under Bezos's leadership, the company introduced services like Amazon Prime, Amazon Web Services, and devices such as the Kindle and Echo. AWS became a dominant force in cloud computing, providing infrastructure for numerous companies and organizations, including many in the AI sector. Bezos also invested in Amazon AI initiatives, integrating machine learning and generative AI into products and services.
Later career and ventures
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 to advance space exploration and sub-orbital spaceflight. He flew into space on Blue Origin NS-16 in 2021. In 2013, he purchased The Washington Post, and he manages other investments through his venture capital firm, Bezos Expeditions.
On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as CEO and president of Amazon, becoming executive chairman. He was succeeded by Andy Jassy, the former CEO of Amazon Web Services. Bezos has also invested in various AI-related companies, including Anthropic, an AI safety and research organization, reflecting his ongoing interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Personal life and wealth
Bezos was married to MacKenzie Scott from 1993 to 2019; they have four children. He has been involved in philanthropy, including the Bezos Day One Fund and the Bezos Earth Fund. His net worth peaked at over $200 billion, making him one of the richest people in history. In 2018, he was named the "richest man in modern history" after his net worth reached $150 billion.
Bezos's influence extends beyond business into technology and space exploration. His leadership at Amazon transformed e-commerce and cloud computing, and his ventures in aerospace and media have had significant cultural and economic impacts.