Date of birth: 01/12/1964
Jeffrey Preston “Jeff” Bezos is an American entrepreneur and billionaire. The head and founder of the Internet company Amazon.com, the founder and owner of the aerospace company Blue Origin and the owner of the publishing house The Washington Post. One of the richest people in the world, in 2018 he took the first line with a fortune of $ 135.6 billion.
Place of Birth. Education. Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. His maternal ancestors were settlers who lived in Texas, and over the generations acquired a ranch of about 25,000 acres (101 km 2 or 39 mi 2) near Cotulla. As of March 2015, Bezos was one of the largest landowners in Texas. Bezos’s mother’s grandfather was the regional director of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque. When Jeff was 4 years old, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel Bezos, who adopted Jeff. After the wedding, the family moved to Houston, Texas, and Miguel worked as an engineer for Exxon. Jeff attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade. As a child, he spent the summer working on his grandfather’s ranch in South Texas.
The family moved to Miami, Florida, where he attended Miami Palmetto High School.
Bezos graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Career. After graduating from university, Bezos worked on Wall Street in computer science. After that, he worked on the development of an international trade network for a company known as Fitel. He then worked for Bankers Trust. He later took up the position of Vice President at DE Shaw & Co, from which he left in the summer of 1994.
Business. In 1994, Bezos founded the online store Amazon.com, the initial investment in which was $ 300 thousand. The site was launched on July 16, 1995, although at that time it was not fully completed, for example, the site could order a negative number of books. Bezos motivated this by the need to get ahead of the competition.
In 1997, Amazon.com went public.
Since 2000, has been financing the Blue Origin project – the launch of private spacecraft. Is planning a commercial human suborbital space flight in 2018.
On April 26, 2015, after the Q1 reports by Amazon.com, an unprecedented story happened. Following the release of the report, the company’s share price jumped sharply, and by the end of trading rose 14%, which is $ 55.11 / share in dollar terms, leading to an increase in the company’s market capitalization, and the share price at $ 445.1. Bezos, as the largest investor in the company, namely, he owns 83.9 million (14%) shares of Amazon.com, received considerable benefit – this made him $ 4.63 billion richer.Therefore, in April 2015, Bezos’s fortune was estimated at $ 37.36 billion.
Investment. In 2013, Bezos bought the American publishing house The Washington Post for $ 250 million.
Bezos was one of the earliest shareholders in Google; he invested $ 250,000 in 1998.
He has also invested in Unity Biotechnology, a life-extension research firm that hopes to slow or stop the aging process.
Charity. In July 2012, Bezos and his wife personally donated $ 2 million to support a successful same-sex marriage referendum in Washington.
Condition. One of the richest people on the planet, as of August 10, 2017, his fortune was estimated at $ 83.6 billion. When the markets opened on July 27, 2017, Bezos briefly became the richest man in the world, surpassing Bill Gates with a net worth of just over $ 90 It lost the title later that day as Amazon stock plunged, returning it to second place with a net worth of just under $ 90 billion.
In 2018, he became the richest man according to Forbes , taking the first line with a fortune of $ 135.6 billion.
As of September 2020, his fortune was $ 200.2 billion.
Confession. In 1999, Time magazine named him Person of the Year.
Interesting Facts. In 2016, Bezos played a Starfleet official in a scene from Star Trek: Infinity.
A family. Bezos and his wife Mackenzie have four children. On January 9, 2019, Jeff Bezos announced the divorce from his wife Mackenzie Bezos after 25 years of marriage. In April of the same year, the divorce was formalized: the ex-wife of the billionaire will receive $ 37.5 billion in compensation.
