Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos married MacKenzie Scott in 1993 after meeting her while they both worked at D.E. Shaw. They moved to Seattle the following year as Bezos began developing Amazon, and they had four children together, three sons and a daughter adopted from China. Their marriage ended in divorce in 2019 after 25 years.

Bezos has been married to Lauren Sánchez since June 2025. Sánchez is a former broadcast journalist and licensed helicopter pilot, and the couple became engaged in 2023 before marrying in Venice, Italy.

After graduating summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1986 with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, Bezos worked at Fitel and Bankers Trust before joining D.E. Shaw. He became the firm's youngest senior vice president and examined investment opportunities created by the rapidly expanding Internet.

In 1994, Bezos left D.E. Shaw and moved from New York to Seattle with MacKenzie Scott to start an online business. He identified books as a strong first product for Internet commerce because a comprehensive mail-order catalog would have been impractical to print and distribute. During the drive to Seattle, he wrote the first draft of Amazon's business plan.

Amazon opened as an online bookstore in July 1995. Within its first 30 days, it had sold books in all 50 U.S. states and 45 foreign countries. Early features included one-click shopping, customer reviews, and email order verification.

Amazon expanded beyond books into CDs, videos, music, toys, electronics, clothing, and other products. Bezos pursued rapid expansion and market share, with the goal of making Amazon a broad online marketplace rather than only a bookstore.

The company introduced Amazon Web Services in 2006, released the Kindle in 2007, and entered television and film production through Amazon Studios in 2010. Bezos stepped down as Amazon's chief executive officer in 2021 and continued as the company's executive chairman.

Bezos was named Time magazine's Person of the Year in 1999. Amazon's growth made him a prominent figure in technology and retail, while its customer-focused operating model became closely associated with his leadership.

Bezos founded the aerospace company Blue Origin to develop reusable spaceflight technology and support an enduring human presence beyond Earth. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle carried Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen on its first human spaceflight in July 2021.

In 2013, Bezos purchased the newspaper division of The Washington Post Company, including The Washington Post and several smaller Washington-area newspapers. He made the acquisition as the principal of a private company rather than on behalf of Amazon.

His other public projects include Bezos Expeditions, the Bezos Day One Fund, and the Bezos Earth Fund. He has also supported educational and environmental initiatives, including a major gift to the Smithsonian Institution.