Jeff Bezos is the American entrepreneur who founded Amazon in a rented garage in 1994 and built it from an online bookshop into one of the most valuable companies on Earth. He stepped down as chief executive in 2021 to focus on his rocket company Blue Origin, the Washington Post and large-scale philanthropy, while remaining one of the world’s richest people.
| Full Name | Jeffrey Preston Bezos |
| Born | 12 January 1964, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA |
| Age | 62 (as of 2026) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur; founder and executive chair of Amazon |
| Known For | Amazon, Blue Origin, Washington Post owner |
| Net Worth (est.) | About $215 billion (Forbes est., 2025) |
Early Life: Texas Ranch Summers
Bezos was born in Albuquerque to Jacklyn Gise, a 17-year-old high-school student; his biological father’s marriage to her lasted little more than a year. When Jeff was four his mother married Miguel ‘Mike’ Bezos, a Cuban immigrant who had arrived in the US alone as a teenager and worked as a petroleum engineer — Mike adopted Jeff, who has always called him his father. Bezos spent childhood summers working on his grandfather’s ranch in Texas, an experience he credits for his self-reliance. A star student, he went to Princeton and graduated in 1986 with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.
Quitting Wall Street to Found Amazon
After Princeton, Bezos worked at the telecoms start-up Fitel and Bankers Trust before joining the hedge fund D. E. Shaw, where he became its youngest senior vice-president. There, researching the young internet, he found web usage growing at a reported 2,300 per cent a year and drew up a list of products that might sell online; books won. In 1994 he quit, drove west with his wife MacKenzie, wrote the business plan en route, and founded the company — first called Cadabra, then Amazon.com — in Bellevue, Washington, selling its first book in July 1995.
The Everything Store and Beyond
Amazon went public in 1997, survived the dot-com crash that killed most of its rivals, and expanded from books into virtually every retail category. Two side bets became giants: the Kindle (2007) reshaped publishing, and Amazon Web Services (launched 2006) grew into the world’s largest cloud-computing business and Amazon’s main profit engine. Bezos was the world’s richest person from 2017 into the early 2020s. He bought the Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million, founded Blue Origin in 2000 — he flew to the edge of space on its first crewed flight in July 2021 — and in July 2021 handed the Amazon CEO job to Andy Jassy, becoming executive chair.
Jeff Bezos Net Worth
Forbes estimated Bezos’s net worth at about $215 billion in 2025, almost all of it his remaining stake of roughly 8–9 per cent of Amazon. The number would be higher but for his 2019 divorce settlement, in which about a quarter of the couple’s Amazon shares — then worth some $38 billion — transferred to MacKenzie Scott. Because the fortune is a single stock, Forbes’ real-time estimates move by billions on Amazon’s trading days; his philanthropy, including the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund announced in 2020, also steadily draws on the total.
Personal Life and Family
Bezos married novelist MacKenzie Scott in 1993; they had four children before divorcing in 2019. In June 2025 he married Lauren Sánchez, a former television journalist and helicopter pilot, in a widely covered ceremony in Venice. He announced in 2023 that he was moving his home base from Seattle to Miami. Beyond Amazon he runs Bezos Expeditions, his family investment office, funds the Day 1 Fund for homeless families and preschools, and has spent two decades arguing that humanity’s long-term future requires industry — and eventually people — in space.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Jeff Bezos?
He was born on 12 January 1964, making him 62 years old in 2026.
What is Jeff Bezos’s net worth?
Forbes estimated about $215 billion in 2025, based mainly on his roughly 8–9 per cent stake in Amazon.
When did Jeff Bezos found Amazon?
In 1994 in Bellevue, Washington; the site sold its first book in July 1995 as an online bookstore.
What is Blue Origin?
Bezos’s private spaceflight company, founded in 2000, which builds reusable rockets and flew Bezos himself to the edge of space in July 2021.
Related Biographies
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — more in our Billionaires & Rich Lists collection.
Net worth and salary figures are estimates based on publicly available sources and may change over time.
