Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world with a net worth of $143 billion. His fortune has grown by $24 billion amid coronavirus pandemic. He is the Founder and CEO of Amazon.com the E-Commerce giant.
In 1994 Bezos quit his regular job to start Amazon.com which was initially an online bookstore. While the majority of the early 90’s online stores went under, Amazon kept flourishing with yearly sales that jumped from $510,000 in 1995 to over $17 billion in 2011. By September 2018, Amazon was valued at more than $1 trillion. Jeff Bezos currently has an 11% stake in Amazon. This is Jeff Bezos Biography. Let’s take a look at his endeavors other than Amazon.
Read: How the Rich get Richer during the Coronavirus Pandemic
Washington Post
On August 5th 2013, Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post for $250 million. It was an ironic move considering Bezos started the end of the print media.
“The values of The Post do not need changing. …There will, of course, be change at The Post over the coming years. That’s essential and would have happened with or without new ownership. The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs.”
In a statement to Post employees on August 5, Bezos.
Moreover, Bezos established Nash Holdings, a limited liability holding company that legally owns the paper. Under Bezos, a new business model was implemented and the company turned profitable in 2016. The Washington Post overtook The New York Times digital in unique users, with 86.4 million unique users as of June 2019.
Aerospace company: Blue Origin
This has to be the most interesting aspect of Jeff Bezos biography. On September 8th, 2000, Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin an aerospace company that develops technologies to lower the cost of space travel to make it accessible to paying customers. Blue Origin was the first to send a rocket to space, have it land, and then send it back again. In August 2019, NASA revealed that Blue Origin was one of the13 companies selected to collaborate on 19 technology projects to reach the moon and Mars.
The Amazon CEO sells $1 billion of Amazon stock annually to fund Blue Origin. Bezos’s long term vision for the company is to make space accessible; a future in which millions of people are working and living in space.
Bezos Expeditions
Jeff Bezos manages his personal investments through his venture capitalist firm, Bezos Expeditions. He was one of the first shareholders of Google, with his share worth more than $3 billion today. Moreover, Bezos Expeditions has invested in biotech companies working to find a cure for cancer, agriculture tech companies trying to solve world hunger, finance tech companies empowering underserved communities and educational tech companies helping people prepare for an evolving job market.
Philanthropy
In 2018 Jeff Bezos started the Bezos Day One Fund which focuses on financially helping existing non-profits that help homeless families. Bezos used $2 billion from his personal wealth to fund this project. In addition to that, the same year he also gave a $33 million dollar scholarship grant to TheDream.US, the nation’s largest scholarship program. This will enable 1,000 undocumented immigrant graduates of US high schools with DACA status the opportunity to go to college.
Read: Here’s how much Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has personally given to charity.
On February 17, 2020, Bezos launched the Bezos Earth Fund to combat the potentially devastating effects of climate change. He committed $10 billion to the cause and stated he would help preserve and protect the natural world in whatever way he could.
After that, most recently Bezos gave $100 Million to Feeding America’s Covid-19 Response Fund. As a result, the organization was able to help millions of families. It was the biggest donation the organization ever received. Above all, Bezos also urged others to come forward and help in these difficult times.
Jeff Bezos Biography is certainly a fascinating one. If you enjoyed reading through it, we made a video on Jeff Bezos for you to share with your friends.
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