° Gists By Richest °
2. Jeff Bezos
Net worth: $197 billion
Source: Amazon
Age: 60
Residence: Miami, Florida
Citizenship: U.S.
Jeff Bezos created e-commerce giant Amazon
in 1994 and ran it as CEO until July 2021 (he
remains chairman); that same month he went
to space on a rocket built by private rocket
company Blue Origin, which he founded and
has funded with billions of dollars. His fortune
fell by $7.8 billion during August 2024 as
Amazon’s shares declined about 2.4%.
Before founding Amazon.com in his garage in
Seattle, he worked in New York at hedge fund
D.E. Shaw. Amazon began as an online
bookseller at a time when few people bought
goods online. The company also grew to
dominate cloud storage and moved into movie
and series production to feed Amazon Prime
Video.
Bezos was the world’s richest person
on Forbes’ list of the World’s Billionaires from
2018 through 2021; he dropped to second
richest on the 2022 billionaires list.
In 2019, Bezos and his wife MacKenzie
divorced; as part of the settlement, she got
4% of Amazon’s shares and he kept 12%. He
has since sold and given away more of his
stake and owns just under 10% of the
company. Since Amazon went public in
1997, Forbes calculates that he has sold more
than $27 billion worth of his stock.
Through
his Bezos Expeditions he has invested in an
array of companies, including Airbnb and
software firm Workday.
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