- Wealth: $218 Billion
- Birth Date: Jan 12, 1964 (age 60)
- Place of Birth: Albuquerque
- Gender: Male
- Occupation: Entrepreneur, Business Magnate
- Nationality: United States of America
Jeff Bezos Net Worth (Money & Salary)
Jeff Bezos is an American philanthropist, tycoon, and space pioneer with a wealth of $218 billion. Jeff Bezos amassed his fortune as the creator of Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos is the previous CEO and existing president and chairman of the board of Amazon. He initially exceeded Bill Gates in riches in July 2017. He was the wealthiest individual globally continuously from October 2017 to January 2021. He regained the title of the wealthiest individual in the world in March 2024, surpassing Elon Musk in overall wealth.
As indicated by the company’s most recent SEC filing, Jeff holds 55 million Amazon shares, approximately 12% of the total outstanding shares. At his peak, he possessed 80 million Amazon shares. As part of his divorce settlement in April 2019 with MacKenzie Bezos, Jeff transferred 19.7 million shares to his former wife. The worth of the shares during the transfer was $36 billion. The settlement briefly decreased Jeff’s wealth from $150 billion to $114 billion. Jeff was also an early pre-IPO investor in Google.com and possesses at minimum $1 billion worth of shares in what is presently recognized as Alphabet Inc.
During most of the 2000s, Jeff was not even among the top 10 or top 20 wealthiest people globally. Amazon stock started to surge in late 2014. By July 2015, Jeff had $50 billion in wealth. In less than two years, his wealth (and the stock) had doubled. On July 27, 2017, Bezos outstripped Bill Gates as the richest individual globally. In September 2018, Amazon’s market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion. This was before his divorce, so he still held 80 million shares. At that valuation, Jeff’s wealth surpassed a then-record high of $170 billion.
ESSENTIAL POINTS
- Resigned from his finance job in 1994 to initiate an online bookstore
- Outlined the Amazon business strategy in the car while driving across the country
- Wealth reached $12 billion on the day Amazon went public in 1998
- Wealth declined to $2 billion following the dotcom bubble burst
- Wealth exceeded $50 billion for the first time in 2015
- Wealth surpassed $100 billion for the first time in 2018
- Possesses $1 billion value of Google due to a pre-IPO investment
- Was valued at $136 billion when he and spouse MacKenzie declared their separation
- MacKenzie received 20 million Amazon shares and is currently the wealthiest woman globally
- If they had never divorced, Jeff’s wealth would easily exceed $250 billion
- Owns The Washington Post
- Owns real estate worth $300 million in Beverly Hills
- Owns real estate worth $60 million in Washington
- Has sold a minimum of $70 billion in Amazon shares up to now
- Sells $1 billion yearly to support space firm Blue Origin
- Wealth reaches $211 billion in July 2021
Has Jeff Bezos Ever Been the Richest Person Ever?
Comparing Jeff’s peak wealth of $200 billion to our list of the richest individuals of all time accounting for inflation, Jeff does not even feature in the top 10. Using the $200 billion figure, that would be the 11th largest fortune ever amassed by a solitary individual (factoring in inflation). For instance, when oil mogul John D. Rockefeller passed away, he had an inflation-adjusted wealth of $340 billion.
Is Jeff Bezos Capable of Becoming a Trillionaire?
Anything is achievable! However, achieving trillionaire status appears to be an immensely ambitious objective if he solely relies on his Amazon shares. As the possessor of 12% of Amazon’s shares, Jeff is essentially valued at $120 billion (in theory) for every $1 trillion market capitalization milestone. Hence, for Jeff to reach billionaire status solely based on his Amazon shares, the company’s market capitalization would need to surpass $8.3 trillion.
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Early Years
Jeff Bezos made his entrance into the world on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His mother was a 17-year-old high school student when she brought Jeff into the world. His father was the owner of a bicycle store. Jeff’s mother eventually divorced his biological father. When he turned four, she wed a Cuban immigrant named Miguel Bezos. Shortly after the marriage, Miguel adopted Jeff, resulting in Jeff’s last name being officially changed from Jorgenson to Bezos. The family relocated to Houston, where Mike secured a position as an engineer at Exxon. They were additionally nearer to his maternal grandparents, who possessed a cattle ranch south of San Antonio. His maternal grandmother, Mattie Louise Gise, was a first cousin to country vocalist George Strait.
While growing up in Texas, Bezos utilized his parents’ garage as a laboratory for his scientific experiments. He would also dedicate his summers to labor at his grandparents’ ranch. Jeff would later assert to have imbibed his work ethic during his summer stints at the ranch. He would also subsequently buy the ranch and expand it from 25,000 to 300,000 acres.
The family shifted to Miami around the time Jeff commenced high school. While in high school, Jeff worked as a short-order cook at McDonald’s. He emerged as the high school valedictorian and a National Merit Scholar. In his valedictory address, he articulated a vision that inhabitants of the earth would eventually inhabit space.
He enrolled at Princeton University with the aim of pursuing physics, but his affection for computers steered his educational journey. He ultimately graduated summa cum laude with a 4.2 GPA, Phi Beta Kappa. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and electrical engineering.
After graduating from college, Jeff joined a financial technology company named Fitel. He later transitioned to the banking sector when he landed a position in product management at Bankers Trust. In 1990, he wasemployed as a financial expert at D. E. Shaw & Co., a hedge fund that had recently been established with the concept that mathematical modeling could anticipate significant market gains.
Jeff was with D.E. Shaw until 1994, when he had advanced to the fourth senior vice president of the firm. At that time, he was 30 years old.
Amazon
A year earlier, Jeff became captivated by the emerging worldwide web. His interest was in trading goods online, and he decided to focus on selling books. Bezos devised Amazon’s business strategy during a cross-country journey from New York to Seattle. He formally established the company in 1994, initiating the original business from his garage.
Other Achievements
In 2008, Bezos was granted an honorary doctorate in Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University. In 1999, he was honored as Time magazine’s Person of the Year. In 2000, Bezos started Blue Origin, a startup business for human spaceflight, partly due to his enthusiasm for space exploration. Blue Origin included an early interest in developing space lodging, theme parks, settlements, and small urban areas for 2 million to 3 million individuals orbiting the Earth. The creation of the enterprise was kept confidential for a few years until its public acknowledgment in 2006 following the acquisition of a significant land parcel in west Texas for a launch and testing facility. In 2013, Bezos was exploring commercial space travel prospects and plans withRichard Branson, the multibillionaire creator of Virgin Group – during the same year, he also bought The Washington Post.
(Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images)
Property And Miscellaneous Possessions
For about three decades, Jeff lived in Seattle, Washington. In November 2023, he declared his intention to permanently relocate to Miami. During the prior two monthshe acquired $150 million worth of two estates on a private island in Miami named Indian Creek Village, also recognized as the “Billionaire Bunker.” The estates are adjacent, and the assumption is that he intends to demolish both to construct a massive new residence. In April 2024, it was disclosed that Jeff had purchased a THIRD estate on Indian Creek. In this third transaction, he paid $90 million for a six-bedroom house that he purportedly plans to reside in while demolishing the other two residences to create a new grand estate.
In 2007, Jeff and MacKenzie spent $24.5 million on a mansion situated on two prime acres in Beverly Hills, California. In 2018, they purchased the neighboring property for $12.9 million. MacKenzie received this merged two-property as part of their divorce settlement in 2019. In August 2022, MacKenzie announced the donation of the properties to a charitable organization named the California Community Foundation. At the time of the donation, the combined estate was valued at an estimated $55 million.
On February 12, 2020, it was revealed that Jeff paid $255 million for two properties in Beverly Hills. The first property, known as the Jack L. Warner estate, was priced at $165 million. The estate encompasses 10 picturesque acres in the heart of Beverly Hills and features a 13,600-square-foot primary residence. The seller was entertainment tycoonDavid Geffen, who bought the property for $47.5 million in 1990.
The second property Bezos was reported to have purchased in February 2020 was a 120-acre undeveloped hilltop named Enchanted Hill. The seller was the estate of the late Microsoft founderPaul Allen, who bought the land for $20 million in 1997. Although mostly covered with wild plants, the property boasts a 1.5-mile driveway and a well-kept bluff at its peak. A month after the reported purchase, the deal fell through. Thus, Jeff’s total real estate spending spree in February 2020 was the $165 million Jack L. Warner estate.
Other real estate holdings:
- $23 million mansion in Washington D.C., purchased in 2018. A former museum comprising two structures totaling 27,000 square feet of living space
- 300,000 acres in Texas, inclusive of multiple ranches
- 100,000 additional acres in various regions of the nation
- Three residences in 25 Central Park West in Manhattan
- $10 million 5-acre residence in Medina, Washington, bought in 1999
- $50 million mansion adjacent to his property in Medina, acquired in 2005
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Net Worth Information And Background
In the two decades following Amazon’s initial public offering, Bezos has divested no less than $70 billion of his shares. Annually, he sells around $1 billion in shares as part of a calculated stock liquidation arrangement.
On the day Amazon became public, the company’s market value was $300 million. Jeff held a 40% stake in the enterprise at that time, resulting in a net worth of $120 million (on paper, pre-tax). In less than a year, his worth escalated to $1 billion. At the peak of the dotcom bubble, Jeff’s net worth exceeded $10 billion. Following the bubble’s collapse, Amazon’s stock value plummeted to an all-time low.of $5 per share in October of 2001. At that moment, Jeff’s total value dropped to $1-2 billion.
If you had been wise enough to take$10,000and acquire shares of Amazon in October of 2001, currently you would possess more than$15 millionbefore considering any earnings.
Net Worth Achievements
- May 1997 – $120 million on the corporation’s IPO date.
- June 1998 – $1 billion for the initial time
- June 1999 – $10 billion
- July 2015 – $50 billion
- January 2018 – $100 billion
- July 2018 – $150 billion
- September 2018 – $170 billion
- January 2019 – Jeff reports he is separating from his partner of 25 years, MacKenzie. Certainly, the outcome of this separation will have a substantial impact on Jeff’s $150 billion total value.
- April 4, 2019 – Jeff and MacKenzie unveiled they had achieved a friendly resolution of their separation, where she will be granted $36 billion worth of Amazon stock. Jeff will hold onto 75% of his previous interest and will have control over MacKenzie’s shares. She will not own any part of The Washington Post or Jeff’s space enterprise, Blue Origin. It’s uncertain how the pair decided to distribute their several residences and planes. Jeff’s net worth instantly after the declaration became $114 billion.
- March 9, 2020 – $111 billion
- July 1, 2020 – $172 billion
- July 9, 2020 – $190 billion
- August 26, 2020 – $202 billion
- December 2022 – $117 billion
- January 2023 – $107 billion
If you’re monitoring, it just took Jeff three years to reach a billionaire after establishing in 1995. It took him 20 years to acquire $50 billion, but then only 2.5 years to realize his second $50 billion, for a sum of $100 billion. And then it only took seven months to gain his third $50 billion, for a sum of $150 billion. And then he suffered a loss of $36 billion abruptly with the stroke of a pen.
Jeff Bezos Net Worth Progression | |
June 1997 | $150 million |
June 1998 | $1 billion |
June 1999 | $10 billion |
March 2000 | $6 billion |
December 2000 | $2 billion |
September 2001 | $1.5 billion |
September 2003 | $2.5 billion |
September 2004 | $5.1 billion |
September 2005 | $4.1 billion |
September 2006 | $4.3 billion |
September 2007 | $8.7 billion |
September 2008 | $8.2 billion |
September 2009 | $6.8 billion |
September 2010 | $12.6 billion |
September 2011 | $18 billion |
December 2012 | $23.2 billion |
October 2013 | $29 billion |
December 2014 | $30.5 billion |
July 2015 | $50 billion |
October 2016 | $45 billion |
December 2017 | $73 billion |
July 2018 | $150 billion |
September 2018 | $170 billion |
April 2019 | $114 billion |
July 2020 | $190 billion |
July 2021 | $213 billion |
November 2022 | $117 billion |
November 2023 | $170 billion |
May 2024 | $208 billion |
Stats are from 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036, 2037, 2038, 2039, 2040, 2041, 2042, 2043, 2044, 2045, 2046, 2047, 2048, 2049, 2050.