Bezos is an American philanthropist, businessman, and space explorer who is best known for founding Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer. Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos, who serves as its chief executive officer, president, and chairman of the board of directors.
In July 2017, he became the first person to exceed Bill Gates in terms of fortune. Between October 2017 and January 2021, he maintained his position as the world’s richest person without interruption. Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $168 billion as of the time of this writing.
According to the company’s most recent SEC filing, Jeff holds 55 million shares of Amazon, which accounts for around 12 percent of the total number of shares now outstanding. His Amazon holdings reached a height of 80 million shares at the time of writing.
When Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos separated in April 2019, Jeff gave 19.7 million shares of Amazon to his ex-wife as part of the settlement. As of the transfer, the shares were worth $36 billion, which represented a 36% gain. Jeff’s net worth was temporarily cut from $150 billion to $114 billion as a result of the settlement. Jeff was also an early pre-IPO investor in Google.com and holds at least $1 billion shares in what is now known as Alphabet Inc.
When it comes to wealth, Jeff was not even among the top 10 or top 20 of the world’s wealthiest people for much of the 2000s. In late 2014, Amazon’s stock began to soar to unprecedented heights. Jeff’s net worth was $50 billion at the time of his death in July 2015.
In less than two years, his net worth (as well as the value of his shares) had more than doubled. On July 27, 2017, Bezos surpassed Bill Gates in terms of wealth, becoming the world’s richest person. Amazon’s market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion in September of this year. This occurred before his divorce, thus he still controlled 80 million shares at the time of the transaction. The estimate at the moment indicated that Jeff’s net worth had surpassed the previous all-time record of $170 billion.
Is Jeff Bezos the World’s Wealthiest Man?
Comparing Jeff’s highest net worth of $200 billion to our ranking of the richest persons in history after adjusting for inflation, Jeff does not even make the top ten richest people of all time. According to the $200 billion figure, that would represent the eleventh greatest fortune ever amassed by a single individual (counting inflation). By way of perspective, when oil billionaire John D. Rockefeller passed away, he was worth a whopping $340 billion when adjusted for inflation.
Could Jeff Bezos Become a Trillionaire?
Anything is possible in this world! However, if he intends to achieve trillionaire status solely through his Amazon stock, it appears to be an extremely ambitious goal. In effect, Jeff is worth $120 billion (on paper) for every $1 trillion in market capitalization achieved by Amazon because he owns 12 percent of the company’s stock. Alternatively, for Jeff to become a billionaire solely on the basis of his Amazon shares, the company’s market capitalization would have to exceed $8.3 trillion in order for him to do so.
Early Life
Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is the founder and CEO of Amazon. While attending high school at the time of Jeff’s birth, his mother was only 17 years old. His father was the owner of a bicycle shop. Jeff’s birth father was eventually divorced from Jeff’s mother. When he was 4 she married a Cuban immigrant named Miguel Bezos. Soon after the wedding, Miguel adopted Jeff, and Jeff’s last name was legally changed from Jorgenson to Bezos as a result of the adoption. The family relocated to Houston, where Mike accepted a position as an engineer with ExxonMobil. The location was also advantageous because they were closer to his mother’s parents, who owned a cattle ranch south of San Antonio. First cousins with country musician George Strait, his maternal grandmother Mattie Louise Gise, was born to him.
When Bezos was growing up in Texas, he utilized his parents’ garage as a research laboratory for his various experiments. As a child, he would also spend summers helping his grandparents on their ranch. His summers at the ranch, Jeff would later remark, were when he learned the importance of hard work. Also later in life, he would purchase the ranch and grow it from 25,000 to 300,000 acres in size.
Read more: Leonardo Dicaprio Net Worth 2022: Earnings, Salary, Assets
Jeff’s family relocated to Miami at the time he began his high school education. While still in high school, Jeff worked as a short-order cook at McDonald’s in his spare time. He graduated with honors from high school and was named a National Merit Scholar. While delivering his valedictorian speech, he mentioned a hope he had that one day people from the earth would inhabit outer space.
He enrolled at Princeton University with the intention of studying physics, but his interest in computers led him to change his plans. He eventually graduated summa cum laude with a 4.2-grade point average and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and electrical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.
After graduating from college, Jeff went to work for a company named Fitel, which specializes in financial technology. He then made the switch to the banking industry, where he was hired as a product manager at Bankers Trust Company. Upon graduating from college in 1990, he was hired as a financial analyst for D. E. Shaw & Co., a hedge fund that had just been established on the premise that mathematical modeling could anticipate large market returns.
By 1994, Jeff had ascended to the position of fourth senior vice president of D.E. Shaw, where he remained until his retirement in 2005. He was thirty years old at the time.
Real Estate and Assets
On February 12, 2020, it was disclosed that Jeff had purchased two residences in Beverly Hills for a total of $255 million. The first property, which was known as the Jack L. Warner estate, was purchased for $165 million dollars.
The estate, which spans ten beautiful acres in the heart of Beverly Hills, is home to the main house with a living space of 13,600 square feet. The property was sold by David Geffen, the Hollywood magnate who purchased it in 1990 for $47.5 million dollars.
Read more: Aretha Franklin Net Worth: Her Net Worth, Career, Personal Life!
A 120-acre uninhabited hilltop known as Enchanted Hill was rumored to have been purchased by Bezos in February 2020, and it was the second property to be purchased by the billionaire. The land was purchased in 1997 for $20 million by the estate of late Microsoft founder Paul Allen, who died in 2011. The seller was the Allen family.
Read more: Da Brat Net Worth: Net Worth, Salary, Career!
Despite the fact that the property is primarily overgrown with weeds, it does include a 1.5-mile driveway and a landscaped bluff at its highest point. The purchase ended up falling through a month after it was first publicized, according to the media. As a result, the $165 million Jack L. Warner estate was the culmination of Jeff’s February 2020 real estate splurge.
Net Worth Details and History
Since Amazon went public 20 years ago, Bezos has sold at least $70 billion worth of his company’s stock to investors. In accordance with a previously agreed-upon stock sale arrangement, he sells approximately $1 billion worth of shares per year.
Amazon’s market capitalization was $300 million on the day the company went public. Jeff had a net worth of $120 million at the time because he controlled 40 percent of the company (on paper, pre-tax). He was worth $1 billion after just one year.
Jeff’s net worth surpassed $10 billion at the height of the dot-com bubble in 2000. Following the bursting of the bubble, Amazon’s stock price plummeted to an all-time low of $5 per share in October 2001. Jeff’s net worth has plummeted to between $1-2 billion at that point.
For example, if you had been wise enough to take $10,000 and invest it in Amazon shares in October 2001, you would have more than $15 million now, even before factoring in any dividends.