Jeff Bezos’ net worth just hit an all-time high. Here’s how the richest person in the world makes and spends his $171 billion fortune.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is the richest person alive — and the first in modern history to accumulate a fortune over $100 billion.
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is the richest person alive — and the first in modern history to accumulate a fortune over $100 billion.

REUTERS/Katherine Taylor

Jeff Bezos’ fortune has hit an all-time high — $171.6 billion, according to Bloomberg estimates.

The billionaire’s net worth surge comes alongside a jump in Amazon’s share price despite the coronavirus pandemic that has upended the American economy and Bezos’ agreement to surrender 25% of his Amazon stake to his ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos in a divorce settlement last year.

While Bezos has added $56.7 billion to his net worth in 2020 alone, per Bloomberg estimates, the coronavirus crisis has been an economic disaster for the rest of America, as an unprecedented 49 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in recent months.

Bezos isn’t the only billionaire getting richer during the pandemic. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Zoom’s Eric Yuan both saw their net worths grow by more than $2 billion between March and June, Business Insider previously reported.

From real estate to space travel, here’s how Bezos spends his money.

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, the source of much of his wealth, on July 5, 1994.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

Richard Drew/AP

Source: Bloomberg

Bezos’ parents were reportedly shocked that he would give up a cushy Wall Street job in order to sell books over the internet.

Amazon early screenshot
Amazon early screenshot

Jon Erlichman

Source: “The Everything Store” via Business Insider

Bezos’ parents eventually came around and invested about a quarter of a million dollars in the fledgling company, a stake that would be worth as much as $30 billion today.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Reuters

Source: Bloomberg

Bezos also received a lot of support from his then-wife MacKenzie, who negotiated Amazon’s first freight contract and did the company’s accounting. Per the terms of their 2019 divorce settlement, MacKenzie holds a 4% stake in the company, which forms the majority of her $56.9 billion fortune.

Jeff Bezos MacKenzie Bezos
Jeff Bezos MacKenzie Bezos

Dia Dipasupil / Staff

Source: Bloomberg

Amazon made its initial public offering on May 15, 1997. Since that day, the split-adjusted stock price has increased nearly 90,000%.

amazon stock price
amazon stock price

Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Yahoo Finance

Source: Yahoo Finance

Amazon’s rise left several early internet competitors in the dust. In the company’s first post-IPO shareholder letter, Bezos mentioned strategic partnerships with several peers like America Online, Prodigy, and Yahoo that have either gone out of business entirely or been purchased by competitors in the years since.

Yahoo Campus
Yahoo Campus

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

Amazon has steadily grown over the last two decades, and now sells a wide variety of consumer products, electronics, and digital media.

amazon homepage 2
amazon homepage 2

Amazon

Source: Amazon

Another big growth area was Amazon Web Services. As of February 2018, the company’s cloud services was a $17.5 billion business.

Amazon Web Services event
Amazon Web Services event

Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

Amazon has also grown through various acquisitions over time. The company’s 2009 purchase of online shoe retailer Zappos for $1.2 billion stood as Amazon’s biggest acquisition for about eight years.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.

Charley Gallay/Getty Images

Source: Visual Capitalist

That record was blown out of the water with Amazon’s 2017 purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.

Whole Foods
Whole Foods

Business Insider/Hayley Peterson

Source: Visual Capitalist

The Whole Foods acquisition has dramatically boosted Amazon’s push into the grocery world. A 2019 study from OneClickRetail estimates that Amazon had an 18% share of the US online grocery market.

Whole Foods
Whole Foods

Business Insider/Hayley Peterson

Source: Business Insider

Amazon’s rise is the primary source of Bezos’ fortune. Bezos remains Amazon’s largest stockholder, owning 11% of the e-commerce giant. According to MacKenzie Bezos’ statement on the couple’s divorce, Bezos retained 75% of the couple’s Amazon stock holdings and the voting power of MacKenzie’s shares.

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos

REUTERS/Abhishek N. Chinnappa

Source: Forbes, Bloomberg

Bezos has made several investments in other companies, both on a personal level and through his venture capital firm Bezos Expeditions.

Amazon CEO and Chairman Jeff Bezos receives the Citation of Merit on behalf of the Apollo F-1 Search and Recovery Team at the 110th Explorers Club Annual Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York March 15, 2014.
Amazon CEO and Chairman Jeff Bezos receives the Citation of Merit on behalf of the Apollo F-1 Search and Recovery Team at the 110th Explorers Club Annual Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York March 15, 2014.

REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Source: Visual Capitalist

Bezos personally invested in Google in 1998, and his $1 million early investment would likely have made him a billionaire even without his extensive Amazon wealth.

Google office
Google office

Edgar Su/Reuters

Source: “The Everything Store” via Business Insider

Bezos Expeditions has invested in several startups, including blood testing biotech firm Grail, popular software developer website Stack Overflow, and Business Insider.

Business Insider's newsroom.
Business Insider’s newsroom.

Daniel Goodman

Business Insider was acquired by Axel Springer in 2015. Jeff Bezos is no longer invested.

Source: Visual Capitalist

One of Bezos’ more notable purchases was his acquisition of The Washington Post for $250
million in 2013.

washington post
washington post

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Source: Business Insider

Since Bezos’ acquisition, the Post has greatly expanded its digital offerings, and readership has exploded.

washington post
washington post

REUTERS/Stelios Varias

Source: Business Insider

Bezos’ wealth is so massive that, according to Business Insider’s 2018 calculations when he had a mere $130 billion fortune, spending $88,000 to him was similar to an average American spending $1.

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos

REUTERS/Rex Curry

Source: Business Insider

Bezos is one of the country’s biggest landowners, and he and his family own at least five homes across the US.

Jeff Bezos.
Jeff Bezos.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

One estate, with two homes on 5.3 acres of land, is located in Medina, Washington, not far from Amazon’s Seattle headquarters.

Amazon plane Lake Washington
Amazon plane Lake Washington

Stephen Brashear/Getty

Source: Business Insider

Business Insider’s Harrison Jacobs visited Medina in 2017 to get a sense of what the haven for Seattle’s mega-wealthy was like.

MedinaSeattle (16 of 35)
MedinaSeattle (16 of 35)

Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

Jacobs got a picture of the outside of Bezos’ estate, but tall hedges and a gate blocked any view inside.

MedinaSeattle (15 of 35)
MedinaSeattle (15 of 35)

Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider

Source: Business Insider

Bezos also owns a Spanish-style mansion in Beverly Hills, California. He bought the property in 2007 for a reported $24.25 million. He bought another, smaller house right next door a decade later.

Jeff Bezos Beverly Hills Home
Jeff Bezos Beverly Hills Home

Dream Homes Magazine

Source: Business Insider

He also owns a ranch in Van Horn, Texas, which serves as a base for his Blue Origin space exploration company.

Jeff Bezo's West Texas ranch home
Jeff Bezo’s West Texas ranch home

Google Earth

Source: Business Insider

Bezos purchased a townhouse in Washington, DC in 2016.

Jeff Bezo's Washington DC home
Jeff Bezo’s Washington DC home

Google Earth

Source: Business Insider

Bezos owns several condos in the historic Century building at 25 Central Park West in Manhattan.

25 Central Park West
25 Central Park West

David Shankbone/Wikipedia Commons

Source: Business Insider

In June 2019, the Amazon CEO reportedly dropped about $80 million on another three adjacent apartments in a different building at 212 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The spread consists of a three-story penthouse and the two units directly below it.

212 5th Fifth Avenue, New York Jeff Bezos penthouse apartment
212 5th Fifth Avenue, New York Jeff Bezos penthouse apartment

Google Maps

Source: Business Insider

Most recently, Bezos reportedly dropped $165 million on another yet another Beverly Hills mansion — the Warner Estate. The Wall Street Journal reported the sale in February.

A Google Maps satellite view of the Jack Warner Estate.
A Google Maps satellite view of the Jack Warner Estate.

Google Maps

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Bezos has traditionally been somewhat frugal with his ground transportation. As recently as 2013, he was still driving a Honda Accord, according to the book “The Everything Store.”

A Honda Accord; not necessarily Bezos'.
A Honda Accord; not necessarily Bezos’.

Honda

Source: “The Everything Store” via Business Insider

However, Bezos also owns a $65 million Gulfstream G650ER private jet.

A Gulfstream G650ER.
A Gulfstream G650ER.

REUTERS/Aly Song

Source: Business Insider

Bezos sometimes has a taste for exotic cuisine. The founder of e-commerce startup Woot recounted a breakfast with Bezos shortly after Amazon acquired the company at which the billionaire ordered octopus.

octopus grill food
octopus grill food

Andrew Toth / Stringer / Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

The founder recounted Bezos explaining similarities between Amazon’s acquisition of Woot and his offbeat breakfast order. “You’re the octopus that I’m having for breakfast,” Bezos said. “When I look at the menu, you’re the thing I don’t understand, the thing I’ve never had. I must have the breakfast octopus.”

octopus 489868_1280
octopus 489868_1280

Cegoh/Pixabay

Source: Business Insider

Bezos has not engaged in public philanthropy to the same extent as many of his hyper-billionaire peers like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who have both pledged to donate the majority of their fortunes to charity.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Nati Harnik/AP

Source: Business Insider

Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie did sign Gates’ Giving Pledge in May 2019, pledging to donate more than half of her fortune during her lifetime.

jeff mackenzie bezos
jeff mackenzie bezos

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

Bezos has, however, supported Mary’s Place, a Seattle organization that provides shelter and employment training to those who are homeless, and TheDream.US, which supports people who were brought to the US as undocumented immigrants when they were children.

Mary's Place shelter.
Mary’s Place shelter.

By Ed Murray, via Wikimedia Commons

Source: Business Insider

According to CNBC, Bezos has also donated significant sums to Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Washington Foundation, and Princeton University.

Princeton University, Jeff Bezos' alma mater.
Princeton University, Jeff Bezos’ alma mater.

Facebook/Princeton University

Source: CNBC

Bezos also supports some more unusual ventures, like the Long Now Foundation, which seeks to build a giant mechanical “10,000 year clock” underground in West Texas.

The cave that for the 10,000 year clock.
The cave that for the 10,000 year clock.

10000 year clock

Source: Business Insider

The clock is intended to be a “symbol for long-term thinking,” according to a tweet from Bezos.

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

Bezos has been fascinated and inspired by NASA and space travel since watching the Apollo moon landings in his childhood. In 2013, Bezos funded and led an expedition to recover one of the rocket engines from the Apollo 12 mission from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

Apollo 12 launches in stormy weather.
Apollo 12 launches in stormy weather.

NASA

Source: The Seattle Times

Bezos’ most ambitious venture may be Blue Origin, his space exploration company.

Jeff Bezos blue origin
Jeff Bezos blue origin

Win McNamee / Getty Images

Blue Origin has had several successful test flights of its reusable New Shepard rocket, and is currently developing the larger, mo
stly reusable New Glenn rocket system, intended to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Blue Origin
Blue Origin

Blue Origin

Source: Business Insider

In the long term, Bezos intends for Blue Origin to support large-scale human spaceflight, with the goal of colonizing the solar system.

Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017.
Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017.

Isaiah J. Downing/Reuters

Source: Business Insider

In 2018, Bezos told Matthias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider’s parent company Axel Springer, that he considers Blue Origin “the most important work [he’s] doing.”

blue origin new shepard
blue origin new shepard

Blue Origin

Source: Business Insider

Indeed, Bezos told Döpfner that he plans to spend his entire fortune on space exploration, saying, “I am going to use my financial lottery winnings from Amazon to fund that.”

Amazon founder and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos (L) announces plans to build a rocket manufacturing plant and launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida September 15, 2015.
Amazon founder and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos (L) announces plans to build a rocket manufacturing plant and launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida September 15, 2015.

HO/Mike Brown/Space Florida

Source: Business Insider

And in February, Bezos announced a pledge to spend $10 billion to fight climate change.

bezos earth fund instagram
bezos earth fund instagram

Jeff Bezos/Instagram

“I’m committing $10 billion to start and will begin issuing grants this summer,” Bezos wrote on Instagram. “Earth is the one thing we all have in common — let’s protect it, together.”⁣⁣⁣

Source: Business Insider

Bezos also spends plenty of cash in his personal life. He threw a star-studded birthday bash for girlfriend Lauren Sanchez in December.

jeff bezos lauren sanchez
jeff bezos lauren sanchez

Reuters/Andrew Couldridge

Source: Business Insider

Bezos nearly lost the title of “the world’s richest man” to Bill Gates in October 2019, after a disappointing earnings report sent both Amazon’s share price and the CEO’s net worth on a downward spiral in after-hours trading. Bezos’ personal net worth fell $8.2 billion at that point, according to Bloomberg.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is the richest person alive — and the first in modern history to accumulate a fortune over $100 billion.
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is the richest person alive — and the first in modern history to accumulate a fortune over $100 billion.

REUTERS/Katherine Taylor

Source: Bloomberg

Of course, he’s since bounced back in a major way. Even as the coronavirus pandemic upended the American economy in March, Bezos has continued to get wealthier — and now, he’s richer than he’s ever been.

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos

MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images

Bezos’ net worth hit a new peak on July 2 — $171.6 billion. That’s even richer than he was before his divorce settlement.

Amazon’s share price has surged throughout the pandemic as Americans practice social distancing to slow the virus’ spread and increasingly turn to Amazon’s delivery services for daily necessities.

Bezos doesn’t plan to keep all of the $56.7 billion he added to his net worth so far in 2020, however. He announced in April that he pledged to donate $100 million to food banks facing shortages due to the economic crisis spurred by the pandemic.

“My own time now is wholly focused on COVID-19 and how Amazon can best play its role,” Bezos wrote in March. “I want you to know that Amazon will continue to do its part, and we won’t stop looking for new opportunities to help.”

Source: Business Insider

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