[195][196] A year later, Bezos entered the top ten when he increased his net worth to a total of $50.3billion. [49] Prior to settling on Seattle, Bezos had investigated setting up his company at an Indian reservation near San Francisco in order to avoid paying taxes. [274], In 2019, a political action committee linked to Bezos spent over $1million in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat the reelection bid of Seattle city council member and activist Kshama Sawant. [260] In 2012, he donated to Amazon's political action committee (PAC),[260] which has given $56,000 and $74,500 to Democrats and Republicans, respectively. [45][246] In 1994, they moved across the country to Seattle, Washington, where Bezos founded Amazon. [37] In 1986, he graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a 4.2 GPA and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (B.S.E.) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and music industry star Drake are investing in Overtime as part of a new $80 million round of funding for the sport startup, which is Overtime said it will use a portion of the $80 million to help pay for salaries of players and staff, support league start-up costs, invest in the NFT sector and enhance its app. [69] Due to the growth of Alibaba in China, Bezos has often expressed interest in expanding Amazon into India. Sports media company Overtime has secured an $80 million fundraising round with investors including Jeff Bezos investment firm, global entertainer Drake, The current market value of 40 shares is $40. [298][299][300] Later that year, in November, Bezos announced $791M of donations to established, well-known groups, with $100M each going to Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute and World Wildlife Fund, and the remainder going to 11 other groups. [30][31] The family moved to Miami, Florida, where Jeff attended Miami Palmetto High School. As CBS Sports reported back in 2019, Bezos spent some time getting close with several owners back then and he had "strong support within the league" to become an owner at that point. [268] A 2018, $10billion contract known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project, this time with the Pentagon, was allegedly written up in a way that favors Amazon. As CBS Sports reported back in 2019, Bezos spent some time getting close with several owners back then and he had "strong support within the league" to become an owner at that point. 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. [132][133] Journalist Mark O'Connell criticized Bezos's relentless customer focus as "very small" in terms of impact on humanity as a whole,[134] a sentiment technologist Tim O'Reilly agreed with. Jeff Bezos saw his wealth slashed by $20 billion on Friday, cutting him to No. [57] In 2002, Bezos led Amazon to launch Amazon Web Services, which compiled data from weather channels and website traffic. Whats more, the report also said that [211] Bezos's net worth increased by $33.6billion from January 2017 to January 2018. But Soon, the F.A.A. Bezos started to wear tailored clothing; he weight trained, pursued a regimented diet and began to freely spend his money. [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. Mind-boggling", "If You Invested in Amazon at Its IPO, You Could Have Been a Millionaire", "The electricity metaphor for the web's future", "How Jeff Bezos was selected for, but never joined, the Defense Innovation Board", "Bezos Jeffrey P.: Insider Trading Transactions", "Amazon posts quarterly profit of $1.9billion, its highest ever", "Bezos is putting $1billion a year into rocket-maker Blue Origin by selling Amazon stock", "Billionaire Jeff Bezos Will Star in Amazon's Super Bowl Ad", "Amazon posts largest profit in its history on sales, tax boost", "After losing China, Jeff Bezos really wants to win in India", "Jeff Bezos Is $1.8 Billion Richer As Amazon's Market Cap Briefly Hits $1 Trillion", "Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day", "Forget Zuckerberg: Why Trump Is "Obsessed" with Breaking Bezos", "The World's Richest Man Just Lost $10.7 Billion as Trump Tweets About Amazon", "Why a Trump-Led Antitrust Case Against Amazon Is a Long Shot", "Congress demands Jeff Bezos explain Amazon's face recognition software", "Bernie Sanders introduces 'Stop BEZOS Act', "Bernie Sanders introduces 'Stop BEZOS' bill to tax Amazon for underpaying workers", "Bernie Sanders's BEZOS bill takes aim at how Amazon pays workers", "Bernie Sanders targets Amazon, Walmart with 100% tax", "What the Bernie Sanders Amazon welfare fight is really about", "Amazon to raise minimum wage to $15 for all U.S. workers", "Why Amazon really raised its minimum wage to $15", "Amazon.com Announces Financial Results and CEO Transition", "NBC News reports Jeff Bezos' intention to stand down as CEO of Amazon in the third quarter of 2021", "Former Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson leaves Jeff Bezos' space venture", "Buzz in West Texas is about Jeff Bezos space craft launch site", "Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think", "Taking the long view: Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owes much of his success to his ability to look beyond the short-term view of things", "Unplugged: Richard Branson's otherworldly space quest", "Three Billionaires Are Racing to Space. 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.[5][6]. ", "Jeff Bezos Buys David Geffen's Los Angeles Mansion for a Record $165 Million", "Amazon founder Jeff Bezos buys 'most expensive home' in Los Angeles", "Jeff Bezos Drops $16 Million on Another Manhattan Pad to Create a 'Vertical' Dream Home", "Rotterdam Is Dismantling a Historic Bridge for Jeff Bezos's Superyacht", "Expecting the Unexpected From Jeff Bezos", "Washington Post' May Find Conflicts in Amazon Coverage", "More than 400 Washington Post staffers wrote an open letter to Jeff Bezos calling out his 'shocking' pay practices", "More Than 400 Washington Post Staffers Wrote an Open Letter to Jeff Bezos Calling Out His 'Shocking' Pay Practices", "What Jeff Bezos' intimate-message breach teaches us about digital security", "Jeff Bezos' girlfriend Lauren Sanchez greeted him when he returned from his spaceflight. [269] Controversy over this was raised when General James Mattis accepted a headquarters tour invitation from Bezos and co-ordinated the deal through Sally Donnelly, a lobbyist who previously worked for Amazon. WebJeff Bezos childhood. Overtime's basketball league offers $100K salaries to teen players. [9] In August 2020, according to Forbes, he had a net worth exceeding $200billion. ', "Country star Dolly Parton gets $100m award from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos", "Jeff Bezos announces 40 grants totaling $123 million to combat homelessness", "Jeff Bezos reveals what it's like to build an empire", "Inside Jeff Bezos's Washington D.C. Life", List of mergers and acquisitions by Amazon. [51] In late 2002, rapid spending from Amazon caused it financial distress when revenues stagnated. [275], On November 22, 2021, Jeff Bezos donated $100million to the Obama Foundation to "help expand the scope of programming that reaches emerging leaders", and requested the Obama Presidential Center's plaza to be named after John Lewis. [71], In March 2018, Bezos dispatched Amit Agarwal, Amazon's global senior vice president, to India with $5.5billion to localize operations throughout the company's supply chain routes. [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. After a pair of weekend reportsindicating that Snyder wont sell the team to Bezos, A.J. [264][265][266][267], In 2014, Amazon won a bid for a cloud computing contract with the CIA valued at $600million. The Washington Post reported that Jones may be leaning on Dan Snyder to sell [70] On July 27, 2017, Bezos momentarily became the world's wealthiest person over Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates when his estimated net worth increased to just over $90billion. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was a smart and enterprising kid, as Brad Stone writes in his 2013 book "The Everything Store." [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. 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. [96] After the crash, Bezos has been superstitiously wearing his "lucky" Texas Cowboy boots to all rocket launches. [60] According to a 2008 Time profile, Bezos wished to create a device that allowed a "flow state" in reading similar to the experience of video games. Bezos has turned this into his hobby, working with teams in submarines (sometimes bringing along his family) to retrieve these historic relics. [91] The 18-year-old Bezos stated that he wanted to preserve Earth from overuse through resource depletion. During that time, Amazon was just coming into its own by selling CDs online. [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". [137][138][139], Bezos was seen by some as needlessly quantitative and data-driven. Subsequently, National Enquirer revealed that Bezos had an affair with media personality Lauren Snchez; the affair with Sanchez had lasted for months. The NFL has played games in London, Mexico City and Germany but there is one place they haven't touched. [191] After the financial crisis and succeeding economic recession, his net worth would decrease to $6.8billiona 17.7% drop. [284] In 2013, he pledged $500,000 to Worldreader, a non-profit founded by a former Amazon employee. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle reached space in 2015 and afterwards successfully landed back on Earth; he flew into space on Blue Origin NS-16 in 2021. The hour glass appears to be running out on The company will use a portion of the funds to fuel its basketball league that pays 16-to-18-year old players at least $100,000 per year. It wasn't until 1998, a year after Amazon became a public company, that Bezos became a billionaire. Since that report from November 2019, Bezos' ties with the NFL have only grown. This is the lowdown on Amazons The Expanse. On July 20, 2021, he launched on the NS-16 mission with his half-brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen. [136] Throughout the early 2000s, he was perceived to be geeky or nerdy. [161] Bezos does not schedule early morning meetings and enforces a two-pizza rulea preference that meetings are small enough for two pizzas to feed everyone in the boardroom. [124][125] In 2013, Bezos Expeditions funded the recovery of two Saturn V first-stage Rocketdyne F-1 engines from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. [190] From 2005 to 2007, he quadrupled his net worth to $8.7billion. [236][115] Bezos treatment of employees at The Washington Post has also drawn scrutiny. [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. ", "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? [165][166] Bezos maintains the email address jeff@amazon.com[167] as an outlet for customers to reach out to him and the company. [65] A year later, Bezos took on 130,000 new employees when he ramped up hiring at company distribution centers. [7] The company has recruited prominent scientists such as Juan Carlos Izpisa Belmonte (known for work on rejuvenation through reprogramming), Steve Horvath (known for work in epigenetic aging clocks), and Shinya Yamanaka (the Nobel Prize-winning inventor of cellular reprogramming in mammalian cells). WebFor the years he did pay federal income taxes between 2006 and 2018, Bezos paid a total of about $1.4 billion on a reported income of $6.5 billion, or a rate of about 21.5%. This increase outstripped the economic development (in GDP terms) of more than 96 countries around the world. Jeffrey Preston Bezos (/bezos/ BAY-zohss;[2] n Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. Does Jeff Bezos Own a Sports Team? From being spotted at the Super Bowl to sharing drinks with NFL team owners, Jeff Bezos seems to love sports, but does he own his own team? No, Jeff Bezos does not own a sports team. Nonetheless, he certainly has enough money to buy a sports team with the fortune he has accumulated from Amazon. [83] However, Sanders countered that the companies targeted by his proposal have placed an increased focus on part-time workers to escape benefit obligations. [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. [164] Starting in 1998, Bezos publishes an annual letter for Amazon shareholders wherein he frequently refers to five principles: focus on customers, not competitors; take risks for market leadership; facilitate staff morale; build a company culture; and empower people. Overtime raised $80 million in a Series C with investors including Bezos Expeditions, Drake and NBA stars including Devin Booker, Trae Young and Klay Thompson. Jeff Bezos once tried to buy the Seattle Seahawks, even when they werent selling. [287], In May 2017, Bezos gave $1million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which provides pro bono legal services for American journalists. [58] After the company nearly went bankrupt, he closed distribution centers and laid off 14% of the Amazon workforce. [59][failed verification] In November 2007, Bezos launched the Amazon Kindle. WebOn Feb 21st, both Jones' jet and Bezos' jet landed at Princess Juliana Airport on the Island of St. Martin. Khashoggi was killed in late 2018, in Turkey's Saudi consulate for his critical stance and journalism against the Saudi government and its leader. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Billionaire Amazon and Washington Post Owner Jeff Bezos has reportedly come up short in his bid to buy the Washington Commanders football team. [253] He had lobbied Paramount for the role apropos of Alexa and his personal/professional interest in speech recognition. [52] In addition, he regarded "Amazon," the name of the world's largest river as fitting for what he hoped would become the world's largest online bookstore. [101] He has repeatedly called for increased inter-space energy and industrial manufacturing to decrease the negative costs associated with business-related pollution. [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. [107] He announced that New Shepard would begin transporting humans into sub-orbital space by November 2018. [143][144], During the early 2010s, Bezos solidified his reputation for aggressive business practices, and his public image began to shift. "[81] He later said: "Bezos could play a profound role. [131], Journalist Nellie Bowles of The New York Times has described the public persona and personality of Bezos as that of "a brilliant but mysterious and coldblooded corporate titan". [100] Later in November, Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle successfully rocketed into space and reached its planned test altitude of 329,839 feet (100.5 kilometers) before executing a vertical landing back at the launch site in West Texas. Bezos affinity for the Seahawks goes back to 2019 when he attempted to woo the owners into selling the franchise to him. [76] During July 2018, a number of members of the U.S. Congress called on Bezos to detail the applications of Amazon's face recognition software, Rekognition. [203] Bezos was officially ranked as the third-wealthiest person in the world, up from the 5th spot in 2016. [291] Bezos announced in September 2018 that he would commit approximately $2billion to a fund to deal with American homelessness and establish a network of non-profit preschools for low income communities.