How Jeff Bezos Became the Richest Man on the Planet
How Jeff Bezos Became the Richest Man on the Planet ## Jeff Bezos Amazon’s (AMZN) founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, is in the news today, but this time it’s not because of Amazon or his investments. Earlier today, Bezos announced that he and his wife, MacKenzie, had decided to get a divorce. Apart from being the CEO of what is now the world’s most valuable company, Bezos is well known for his active participation in funding new ventures with good future potential. Let’s take a quick look at his investments. ## Bezos’s investments Bezos Expeditions is the name of Bezos’s investment firm through which he has invested in many companies including Twitter (TWTR), Workday (WDAY), and Domo (DOMO). According to the data compiled by crunchbase.com, Bezos invested about $15 million in Twitter in 2008, $85 million in Workday in 2011, and $60 million in Domo in 2013. Apart from these publically listed companies, Bezos’s other investments include companies in sectors such as healthcare, financials, industrials, and technology. He also has invested in companies such as Uber and Airbnb, which are expected to get listed on US exchanges soon after their IPOs this year. In 2018, Bezos topped Forbes’s list of billionaires with an astounding $112 billion. While his other investments may seem like a lot, his ~16.1% stake (according to the latest filings) in Amazon is the real reason for his stellar wealth. Interestingly, Amazon became the world’s most valuable company (SPY) this week. As of January 8, Amazon’s market value stood on top at $810.0 billion, surpassing Microsoft (MSFT) in value, which was at $789.1 billion. Google’s parent company, Alphabet (GOOG), and Apple (AAPL) were in the third and fourth positions with $751.7 billion and $715.4 market caps, respectively. Now let’s take a look at Jeff Bezos’s key stock holdings. As of January 8, Amazon, Netflix (NFLX), Microsoft, Alphabet, Facebook (FB), Intel (INTC), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have risen 10.3%, 19.7%, 3.9%, 8.7%, 1.7%, and 12.4%, respectively, month-to-date.
