How did Jeff Bezos become a billionaire?

Herald Sun

14 hours ago

It's incredible to think that Jeff Bezos started Amazon as an online bookstore from his Seattle garage in 1994. Fast forward three decades later, and the 61-year-old multi-billionaire is the third richest person in the world with a staggering $340 billion in the bank, multiple business interests, philanthropic endeavours and his very own space company, Blue Origin. But how did he become one of the world's most influential people? We take a look at the business of being Mr Jeff Bezos.
According to Forbes, as of May 2025, Bezos's estimated net worth stood at $340 billion, making him the third richest person in the world behind Elon Musk ($650 billion) and Mark Zuckerberg ($370 billion).
He was the wealthiest person from 2017 to 2021, according to Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. AMAZON
In 1994, a then 30-year-old Bezos and then wife MacKenzie Scott ditched their Wall Street jobs and moved to Seattle to start an online book business out of their garage. (They devised the company's business plan during the cross country drive from New York to Seattle.) Bezos' fascination with the internet's potential led him to start the company, which he and Scott called Amazon.
In just a few years, the company had expanded beyond books and, In the three decades since it began, has changed the face of online shopping, becoming the largest retailer online and became the model for internet sales globally.
Bezos stepped down as CEO in 2021, transitioning into the Executive Chairman of Amazon's board, a position he still holds.
Bezos reflected on Amazon's success and why he took the risk and left Wall Street for a start-up working out of his garage.
'I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, 'OK, now I'm looking back on my life. I want to have minimised the number of regrets I have,'' he said in an interview.
'I knew that when I was 80, I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the internet, that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed, I wouldn't regret that. But I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried.' REAL ESTATE
Bezos loves his very lavish homes, building up a diverse property portfolio with properties across the US. (Incredibly, a recent report listed him as the 23rd largest landowner in America, owning a staggering 420,000 acres.)
As for those homes, Bezos owns a luxurious estate in Beverly Hills.
He purchased the 10-acre property from David Geffen for $250 million in 2020, setting a record for the most expensive residential real estate transaction in Los Angeles at the time.
The estate, built in the 1930s, is a symbol of Hollywood's Golden Age and was originally owned by Jack L. Warner, co-founder of Warner Bros.
When he's in New York, he can take his pick of three apartment penthouses (totalling $123 million).
Then there's a compound of three properties totalling $365 million on Indian Creek Island off Miami, also known as 'Billionaire Bunker', and no wonder, given Bezos' neighbours include David and Victoria Beckham (when they're in Miami) Ivanka and Jared Kushner, former NFL star, Tom Brady, and Spanish singing star, Julio Iglesias.
And if that's not enough, he's got an estate in Seattle and two mansions in Washington DC. There's also the $120 million 14-acre property on Maui and his crowning joy, a 400,000-acre Texas ranch, known as Corn Ranch or Launch Site One.
This vast property, located in Hudspeth and Culberson Counties in West Texas, serves as the launch site for his space company, Blue Origin. FURTHER BUSINESS INTERESTS
The multi-billionaire's business interests are still centred around Amazon, which he founded and where he remains the executive chairman. He also founded and leads the aerospace company Blue Origin. Bezos, through his investment firm Bezos Expeditions, has invested in a wide range of companies across various sectors. Some notable investments include Airbnb, Uber, Blue Origin, The Washington Post (he bought the revered masthead in 2013), and Perplexity. Bezos Expeditions also manages his personal wealth and investments. PHILANTHROPY
His philanthropic focus areas include climate change, homelessness, and education, particularly early childhood education.
He has pledged $15 billion to the Bezos Earth Fund to address climate change and nature-related issues.
Additionally, his Bezos Day One Fund is dedicated to supporting organisations that address homelessness and creating new preschools in low-income areas.
Bezos has stated his intention to give away the bulk of his wealth during his lifetime. BLUE ORIGIN
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 after a childhood obsession with space.
His goal is to enable a future where millions of people live and work in space, primarily to preserve and sustain earth.
He has put billions into the endeavour. But there have been a few snags along the way.
The ill-fated 12-second Blue Origin flight – manned by now-wife Sanchez, Katy Perry and Gayle King among others – was a major PR disaster for the brand, with critics slamming the trip as tone-deaf and expensive. FAMILY
Bezos married MacKenzie Scott in 1993 after meeting a year earlier at D.E. Shaw, an investment management firm in New York.
They are the parents of four children: three sons, and a daughter adopted from China. Only their eldest son's name – Preston Bezos – has been made public.
The couple split in 2019 after 25 years together amid rumours of Bezos' alleged affair with American media personality, Lauren Sanchez.
In the split, Bezos kept 75 per cent of the couple's Amazon stock with Scott getting the remaining 25 per cent ($54 billion). Bezos also kept the couple's voting rights at Amazon. Scott has since given away a reported $29 billion to charity and philanthropic causes through her organisation, Yield Giving.
Bezos married Sanchez on Friday at a lavish wedding in Venice.
Originally published as Billionaire Bezos and how he built his mega empire