[45][51] Three years after Bezos founded Amazon, he took it public with an initial public offering (IPO). [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. The great American entrepreneur Jeff Bezos is the co-founder and longest-serving CEO of Amazon. Forensic analysis of Bezos's mobile phone conducted by advisory firm FTI Consulting, concluded it "highly probable" that the hack was achieved using a malicious file hidden in a video sent in a WhatsApp message to Bezos from the personal account of the crown prince on May 1, 2018. [36] His 1982 high school valedictorian senior graduation speech was followed up with a Miami Herald interview in which he expressed an interest to build and develop hotels, amusement parks, and colonies for human beings who were in orbit. Jeff Bezos is a gamer if you count flying rockets into space, co-founder of Amazon-owned Twitch says. [110] To execute the sale, he established limited liability company Nash Holdings to serve as a holding company through which he would own the newspaper. [10] In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, his wealth grew by approximately $24billion. Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964,[16] the son of Jacklyn (ne Gise) and Theodore Jrgensen. [126] They were positively identified as belonging to the Apollo 11 mission's S-1C stage from July 1969. [52] He accepted an estimated $300,000 from his parents as investment in Amazon. ", "Amazon is celebrating its 25th birthday. Jeffs mother and father were was only 17 and 19 when he was born. He has also supported Democrats U.S. representative John Conyers, as well as Patrick Leahy and Republican Spencer Abraham, U.S. senators serving on committees dealing with Internet-related issues. Jeff Bezos ' girlfriend Lauren Snchez basically lived in a fishbowl in 2019 when it was first revealed that were dating while they each were still married to other people. [157][158], Bezos used what he called a "regret-minimization framework" while he worked at D.E. Shaw and again during the early years of Amazon. [51], In 1998, Bezos diversified into the online sale of music and video, and by the end of the year he had expanded the company's products to include a variety of other consumer goods. [48][53][54] He warned many early investors that there was a 70% chance that Amazon would fail or go bankrupt. [105][106] In May 2018, Bezos maintained that the primary goal of Blue Origin is to preserve the natural resources of Earth by making the human species multi-planetary. [230], In February 2020, Bezos purchased the Warner Estate from David Geffen for $165 million,[231][232] a record price paid for a residence in the Los Angeles area. Richard Lautens | Toronto Star | Getty Images. [198] However, just months later in October 2016, his wealth increased by $16.2billion to $66.5billion, unofficially ranking him the third-richest person in the world, behind Warren Buffett. ", "Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos have finalized their divorce agreement", "World's richest man Jeff Bezos divorces", "Jeff Bezos, World's Richest Person, Announces Divorce After 25 Years Of Marriage", "MacKenzie Bezos, author, philanthropist, and soon to be world's richest woman? Jeffrey Preston Bezos (/bezos/ BAY-zohss;[2] n Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. WebBezos made a cameo appearance playing an alien in the film Star Trek Beyond. He was high school valedictorian, a National Merit Scholar,[35][36] and a Silver Knight Award winner in 1982. [43] He first worked at Fitel, a fintech telecommunications start-up, where he was tasked with building a network for international trade. [24] Jeff attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade. Perez of FrontOfficeSports.com reports that Bezos remains in the mix. [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. He transitioned into the banking industry when he became a product manager at Bankers Trust from 1988 to 1990. [165][166] Bezos maintains the email address jeff@amazon.com[167] as an outlet for customers to reach out to him and the company. [23], After Mike had received his degree from the University of New Mexico, the family moved to Houston, Texas, so that he could begin working as an engineer for Exxon. [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. "[254] Bezos's family corporation Zefram LLC is named after Zefram Cochrane, a character from Star Trek. [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. "[82] Sanders's efforts elicited a response from Amazon which pointed to the 130,000 jobs it created in 2017 and called the $28,446 figure for its median salary "misleading" as it included part-time workers. This fundraise reflects the incredible growth opportunities associated with such a market leading position, including the opportunity to bring Overtime Elite into the world," said Michael Spirito, a partner at investment firm Sapphire Sport, who led the funding round. [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". [135] His business practices projected a public image of prudence and parsimony with his own wealth and that of Amazon. Author of Book on Amazon", "What Is Jeff Bezos's Religion? In his initial discussion of the project which became Alexa with his technical advisor Greg Hart in 2011, Bezos told him that the goal was to create "the Star Trek computer. [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. The fundraising comes more than a month after Overtime announced a paid basketball league for young players. Yes. Amazon Bezos left D.E. The letter demanded "Fair wages; fair benefits for retirement, family leave and health care; and a fair amount of job security. A.J. [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. [9] In August 2020, according to Forbes, he had a net worth exceeding $200billion. [57] In 2003, Amazon rebounded from financial instability and turned a profit of $400million. The company formally launched on July 16, 1995. Day 1 Families Fund grants, the amounts of which vary in monetary terms, will be sent to 40 organizations across the country.[309]. [162] When interviewing candidates for jobs at Amazon, he has stated he considers three inquiries: can he admire the person, can the person raise the common standard, and under what circumstances could the person become exemplary. [21] After his parents divorced, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos in April 1968. [51] In 2000, Bezos borrowed $2 billion from banks, as its cash balances dipped to only $350million. Bezos rose to be the 5th richest person in the world hours before market close; he gained $7billion in one hour. [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. In March 2022, the NFL made a revolutionary move to deliver the Thursday Night Football media rights to Jeff Bezos streaming platform. [14] The suborbital flight lasted over 10 minutes, reaching a peak altitude of 66.5 miles (107.0km). If he said today, nobody who is employed at Amazon will receive less than a living wage, it would send a message to every corporation in America. [215] Following the report by Quartz, Amazon workers in Poland, (Germany), and Spain participated in demonstrations and labor strikes to draw attention to his growing wealth and the lack of compensation, labor rights, and satisfactory working conditions of select Amazon workers. Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) October 1, 2021 Since New Worlds launch on Tuesday , it has managed to reach a concurrent player count of over 800,000 players, [289][290] A year later in June, he tweeted that he would announce two philanthropic foci by the end of summer 2018. [51] At the time, website listings were alphabetized, so a name starting with "A" would appear sooner when customers conducted online searches. Jeff Bezos once tried to buy the Seattle Seahawks, even when they werent selling. [227], In June 2019, Bezos purchased three adjoining apartments overlooking Madison Square Park in Manhattan, including a penthouse, for a combined total of US$80million, making this one of the most expensive real estate purchases within New York City in 2019. "We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, as we develop new ways for Overtime to engage with and entertain the next generation of athletes and fans.". in electrical engineering and computer science; he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. The Washington Post reported back then that Bezos was interested in buying the Seahawks. He holds a degree in electrical engineering and computer science. 3 among the worlds richest, after Amazons stock tanked following a downbeat It is the world's largest online sales company, the largest Internet company by revenue, and the largest provider of virtual assistants and cloud infrastructure services through its Amazon Web Services branch. The company also and sells apparel with its logos and branding. [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. But he's now out of the NFL and working as the head coach of the XFL's Houston Roughnecks And Phillips - part of a first family of football in Houston thanks to [214] According to Quartz, his net worth of $150billion in July 2018 was enough to purchase the entire stock markets of Nigeria, Hungary, Egypt, Luxembourg, and Iran. $3,487 is divided by 47, a fraction. twitter Vote 3 Related Topics NFL Professional football Professional sport Football Sports 3 comments Best Add a Comment Zac_Anarumo 4 min. [64] On August 4, 2016, Bezos sold another million of his shares for $756.7million. [79] This followed revelations by the non-profit group New Food Economy which found that one third of Amazon workers in Arizona, and one tenth of Amazon workers in Pennsylvania and Ohio, relied on food stamps. Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment firm of the Amazon CEO, is one of the companies tied to this funding round. [40] In addition, he was elected to Tau Beta Pi and was the president of the Princeton chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS). [63], In May 2016, Bezos sold slightly more than one million shares of his holdings in the company for $671million, the largest sum he had ever raised from selling some of his Amazon stock. Jeff Bezos has been continually linked to buying the Washington Commanders But he could pivot to buying the Seattle Seahawks, says a new report Click here for all [115], Bezos makes personal investments through his venture capital vehicle, Bezos Expeditions. Bezos retained his interest in The Washington Post and Blue Origin, as well as voting control of the shares received by his ex-wife. But Soon, the F.A.A. Entrepreneur and world-renowned e-commerce pioneer Jeff Bezos is something of a household name these days. [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. [218], In 2019, Bezos's wealth was reduced by the divorce from his wife MacKenzie Bezos. [93], After its founding, Blue Origin maintained a low profile until 2006 when it purchased a large tract of land in West Texas for a launch and test facility. Notably, journalist Brad Stone wrote a book that described Bezos as a demanding boss as well as hyper-competitive,[133][140] and opined that Bezos perhaps "bet the biggest on the Internet" than anyone else. [127][128] The engines are currently on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight. [86], In February 2021, Bezos announced that in the third quarter of 2021 he would step down from his role as CEO of Amazon to become the Executive Chairman of the Amazon Board. 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. On Saturday, TheAthletic.com reported that Bank of America (which is handling the sale) has informed Bezos that hes out. [270] In November 2019, when the contract was awarded to Microsoft instead, Amazon filed a lawsuit with allegations that the bidding process was biased. Then Bezos called his bluff", "Why Amazon's collaboration with the CIA is so ominous and vulnerable", "DoD's $10B cloud contract comes under protest 11 days after final RFP", "Microsoft wins Pentagon's $10bn cloud computing contract", "Amazon suing Pentagon over $10B cloud contract, alleging 'bias', "Pentagon cancels $10 billion JEDI cloud contract that Amazon and Microsoft were fighting over", "Amazon Pushes ICE to Buy Its Face Recognition Surveillance Tech", "Amazon's growing spending on Seattle politics includes a spate of donations from Jeff Bezos' 'S Team', "Jeff Bezos donates $100M to the Obama Foundation in honor of Congressman John Lewis", "Jeff Bezos donates to Obama Foundation in honor of John Lewis", "Saudi crown prince meets Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in Seattle", "Saudi Arabia 'hacked Amazon boss's phone', says investigator", "Jeff Bezos hack: Amazon boss's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince', "Jeff Bezos hack: Saudi Arabia calls claim 'absurd', "Fred Hutch receives $35million donation, largest ever, from Bezos family", "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and family donate $20M to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center", "Jeff Bezos is the richest man in modern history here's how he spends on philanthropy", "Unanswered questions about Jeff Bezos' new $2billion philanthropic fund", "Jeff Bezos just gave $1million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press", "Jeff Bezos wants to give more money to charity.