(CNN Spanish) — American businessman Jeff Bezos is the second richest person in the world, according to Forbes and Bloomberg rankings, with more than 200 billion US dollars, but how is this wealth created?
Bezos' companies can be divided into five large groups.
Amazon
Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 in Seattle, initially as an online book store, then gradually transformed into a digital commerce giant.
But this giant company in turn acquired several companies, most of which were Internet companies, although they were not limited to this sector.
Highlights of this long list include the live streaming site Twitch, the digital assistant software Alexa, the film and television production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM, which is complemented by the video platform Prime Video, from the same group), the IMDb portal and the Audible service for podcasts and audiobooks, among others. Other. Another valuable asset owned by the group is Amazon Web Services, a suite of computing services launched in 2006.
Amazon also acquired supermarket chain Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion and is betting on the healthcare sector in 2023 by purchasing online healthcare company One Medical.
When he divorced in 2019, his ex-wife Mackenzie Scott received 25% of his shares, or 4% of Amazon's total outstanding shares.
Blue original
Bezos founded the air transportation company Blue Origin in 2000 with the Latin slogan “Gradatim frociter” (step by step, ferociously). In two decades, it has completed numerous successful launches, spaceflights and landings, and Bezos himself reached 106 kilometers above Earth with a flight on the New Shepard spacecraft in 2021.
This is an area in which he competes with another billionaire, Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX, to obtain huge contracts with NASA.
In 2021, Bezos wrote a letter offering a $2 billion discount for the lunar lander project. In 2023, the US space agency awarded it a contract worth more than $3.4 billion to develop a lunar lander for the Artemis V mission, and Blue Origin said it would contribute a similar amount to complete the project.
Being a private company and not listed on the stock exchange, Blue Origin accounts are not available to the public. Although he will not make profits today with such large expenses, Bezos is betting on the future.
Bezos travels
The entrepreneur's name appears on the list of investors and shareholders in many digital giants, not only through Amazon, but through his own investment portfolio: Bezos Expeditions, founded in 2005. Even before that, he showed his vision by being one of the first investors in Google. . , in the year 1998.
According to page Bezos travelsOther companies that Bezos has invested in are the rental platform Airbnb, the social network from a long list.
Washington Post
The businessman bought the newspaper personally in 2013, and not through his companies, for US$250 million, in a deal that also included other publications such as the Express, the newspaper chain The Gazette, El Tiempo Latino, and others.
In 2023, Bezos denied to CNN reports that he might sell the newspaper, allegedly to finance the purchase of an American soccer team.
Bezos Day One Fund
The fifth branch of the companies managed by Bezos is a charitable branch.
In 2018, the businessman launched the organization with his then-wife Mackenzie Bezos Day One FundWith a commitment of US$2,000 million for measures to assist displaced families, school scholarship projects, and financing educational centers for low-income sectors.
In 2020, the businessman also founded a company Bezos Earth Fundwhich works to mitigate the impact of climate change and environmental challenges, and committed that year to donate US$10 billion over the decade to finance projects.
In an interview with CNN in 2022, Bezos said he plans to give away the majority of his wealth during his lifetime, but did not provide details on the time frame in which he intends to do so. On the other hand, he has not signed the Giving Pledge, the initiative promoted by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett under which several billionaires commit to donating the majority of their wealth under shorter terms to charitable causes.
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