Jeff Bezos Net Worth (Money & Salary) 2024 (2024)

Jeff Bezos Net Worth (Money & Salary)

Jeff Bezos, an American benefactor, entrepreneur, and celestial discoverer, possesses an estimated wealth of $218 billion. He amassed his riches through establishing Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos served as the former CEO and currently holds the positions of president and chairman of the board at Amazon. He outstripped Bill Gates in terms of affluence in July 2017. From October 2017 to January 2021, he held the title of the richest individual globally. In March 2024, he reclaimed the throne as the wealthiest individual worldwide, surpassing Elon Musk in total asset value.

As per the latest SEC submission from the company, Jeff maintains ownership of 55 million Amazon shares, constituting roughly 12% of the total outstanding shares. At his peak, he possessed 80 million Amazon shares. Following his divorce settlement with MacKenzie Bezos in April 2019, Jeff transferred 19.7 million shares to his former spouse. The estimated worth of the transferred shares at that time was $36 billion, temporarily reducing Jeff’s net worth from $150 billion to $114 billion. Jeff was also an early investor in Google.com before its IPO and currently holds at least $1 billion in shares of what is now known as Alphabet Inc.

During the 2000s, Jeff was not among the top 10 or top 20 wealthiest individuals globally. The value of Amazon stock began to soar in late 2014. By July 2015, Jeff’s wealth stood at $50 billion. In less than two years, both his wealth and the stock value doubled. On July 27, 2017, Bezos surpassed Bill Gates to become the richest person globally. By September 2018, Amazon’s market capitalization exceeded $1 trillion. This was pre-divorce, with Jeff owning 80 million shares. At that valuation, Jeff’s net worth peaked at an all-time high of $170 billion.

Was Jeff Bezos Ever the Most Affluent Individual in History?

Comparing Jeff’s peak wealth record of $200 billion with our list of the wealthiest people of all ages after adjusting for inflation, Jeff does not even make it to the top 10. With the $200 billion figure, it would mark the 11th largest fortune ever amassed by a single person (factoring in inflation). For perspective, when oil mogul John D. Rockefeller passed away, his wealth stood at an inflation-adjusted $340 billion.

Is Jeff Bezos on Track to Achieve Trillionaire Status?

Any outcome is feasible! However, attaining trillionaire status solely based on his Amazon shares may appear to be an exceptionally ambitious objective. Given his ownership of 12% of Amazon’s shares, Jeff’s wealth essentially translates to $120 billion (on paper) for every $1 trillion market capital milestone. In other words, for Jeff to become a trillionaire solely through his Amazon holdings, the company’s market capitalization would have to exceed $8.3 trillion.

Formative Years

Jeff Bezos, born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was raised by a 17-year-old high school student mother after his father’s departure. His mother later married a Cuban immigrant, Miguel Bezos, who adopted Jeff when he was four, leading to the change of his last name from Jorgenson to Bezos. The family relocated to Houston, where Mike, Jeff’s stepfather, secured a position as an engineer at Exxon. Proximity to his maternal grandparents, who owned a cattle ranch near San Antonio, also played a role. Jeff’s maternal grandmother, Mattie Louise Gise, was the first cousin of renowned country vocalist George Strait.

During his Texas upbringing, Jeff utilized his parents’ garage as a laboratory for conducting science experiments. He spent summers working at his grandparent’s ranch, an experience that he credited for instilling his strong work ethic. Subsequently, he purchased and expanded the ranch from 25,000 to 300,000 acres.

Transitioning to Miami during his high school years, Jeff worked as a short-order cook at McDonald’s. He excelled academically, becoming his high school valedictorian and a recipient of the National Merit Scholarship. In his valedictory address, he articulated his aspiration for humanity to colonize outer space.

Initially enrolling at Princeton University to study physics, Jeff’s passion for computing altered his academic trajectory. Eventually graduating summa cum laude with a 4.2 GPA and becoming a member of Phi Beta Kappa, he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and electrical engineering.

Following college, Jeff commenced his professional journey at a financial technology company named Fitel. Subsequently, he transitioned to the finance sector before founding his revolutionary endeavor.

banking sector when he secured a role in product oversight at Bankers Trust. By 1990, he had joined as a financial expert at D. E. Shaw & Co., a hedge fund that had newly begun with the concept that mathematical modeling could foresee substantial market expansions.

Jeff remained at D.E. Shaw until 1994, reaching the position of the company’s fourth senior vice president by then. He was just 30 years old.

Amazon

A year earlier, Jeff became captivated by the emerging worldwide web. He desired to trade something on the internet and decided to start with selling books. Bezos hammered out Amazon’s business strategy during a road trip from New York to Seattle. He officially established the enterprise in 1994, inaugurating the initial operations in his garage.

Other Achievements

In 2008, Bezos was bestowed an honorary doctorate in Science and Technology from Carnegie Mellon University. In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos as its Person of the Year. In 2000, Bezos laid the foundation for Blue Origin, a startup dedicated to human spaceflights, arising from his engrossment with space exploration. Blue Origin initially delved into crafting space lodgings, theme parks, settlements, and small communities for 2 to 3 million individuals orbiting the Earth. The company remained confidential for some years until it was publicly unveiled in 2006 after procuring a substantial tract of land in west Texas for a launch and assessment center. In 2013, Bezos held conversations regarding commercial space travel prospects and tactics withRichard Branson, the multibillionaire founder of Virgin Group — during the same year, he also acquired The Washington Post.

Property Holdings And Additional Assets

Jeff resided in Seattle, Washington for approximately thirty years. In November 2023, he disclosed his intention to permanently relocate to Miami. In the two previous months he acquired two properties for $150 million on a secluded island in Miami known as Indian Creek Village, also recognized as the “Billionaire Bunker.” The properties are adjacent to each other, and the presumption is that he will demolish both to construct a new extravagant mansion. In April 2024, it was unveiled that Jeff had purchased a THIRD mansion on Indian Creek. In this particular deal, he paid $90 million for a six-bedroom residence that he reportedly intends to reside in while demolishing the other two mansions to develop a new grand estate.

In 2007, Jeff and MacKenzie bought a $24.5 million mansion set on two prime acres in Beverly Hills, California. In 2018, they procured the adjacent home for $12.9 million. Following their 2019 divorce settlement, MacKenzie received this combined two-property estate. In August 2022, MacKenzie announced she had given the properties to a charitable organization named the California Community Foundation. At the time of the donation, the amalgamated compound was valued at an estimated $55 million.

On February 12, 2020, it was disclosed that Jeff had invested $255 million in two properties in Beverly Hills. The primary property, recognized as the Jack L. Warner estate, was bought for $165 million. The estate spans 10 lush acres in the heart of Beverly Hills and features a 13,600-square-foot main residence. The seller was entertainment tycoon David Geffen, who acquired the property in 1990 for $47.5 million.

The second property Bezos was reported to have purchased in February 2020 was a 120-acre vacant hilltop named Enchanted Hill. The seller was the estate of the late Microsoft founder Paul Allen, who procured the land in 1997 for $20 million. Although overgrown with weeds, the property boasts a 1.5-mile driveway and a landscaped bluff at its peak. A month after the reported purchase, the deal fell through. Therefore, Jeff’s entire February 2020 real estate frenzy was the $165 million Jack L. Warner estate.

Additional real estate holdings:

• $23 million estate in Washington D.C., purchased in 2018. A former museum consisting of two structures covering 27,000 square feet of living space
• 300,000 acres in Texas, encompassing multiple ranches
• 100,000 additional acres across various regions of the country
• Three units in 25 Central Park West in Manhattan
• $10 million 5-acre property in Medina, Washington, obtained in 1999
• $50 million residence neighboring his property in Medina, acquired in 2005

Wealth Specifics And Background

In the two decades since Amazon went public, Bezos has divested at least $70 billion worth of his shares. He approximately sells $1 billion worth of shares annually as part of a structured stock sale agreement.

On the day Amazon went public, the company’s market valuation was $300 million. Jeff held a 40% stake in the company at that time, translating to a net worth of $120 million (on paper, pre-tax). Within a year, his worth surged to $1 billion. During the apex of the dotcom bubble, Jeff’s net worth soared beyond $10billion. Following the collapse of the bubble, Amazon’s stock value plummeted to a record low of $5 per share in October of 2001. In that period, Jeff’s total wealth decreased to $1-2 billion.

If you possessed the foresight to invest$10,000</strongand purchase Amazon shares in October of 2001, your current funds would exceed$15 million</strongbefore factoring in any dividends.

Milestones in Wealth

• May 1997 – $120 million at the time of the company’s initial public offering.
• June 1998 – Attained $1 billion for the first time
• June 1999 – Reached $10 billion
• July 2015 – Surpassed $50 billion
• January 2018 – Achieved $100 billion
• July 2018 – Hit $150 billion
• September 2018 – Reaches $170 billion
• January 2019 – Jeff declares his separation from his partner of 25 years, MacKenzie. The final decision of this separation will significantly affect Jeff’s $150 billion net assets.
• April 4, 2019 – Jeff and MacKenzie publicize that they have found a mutually acceptable resolution for their split, whereby she will receive $36 billion worth of Amazon shares. Jeff will retain 75% of his prior stake and will maintain voting power over MacKenzie’s shares. She will not have any holding in The Washington Post or Jeff’s aerospace firm, Blue Origin. The division of their various properties and aircraft remains undisclosed. Jeff’s financial worth immediately after the announcement decreased to $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 are following the storyline, Jeff only required three years to achieve billionaire status post his company’s launch in 1995. It took him two decades to accumulate $50 billion, but then just 2.5 years to acquire his second $50 billion, summing up to $100 billion. Following that, merely seven months were needed for the acquisition of his third $50 billion, totalling $150 billion. Subsequently, he incurred a $36 billion loss instantaneously through paperwork.

May 2024

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.