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Tag: Jeff Bezos

  • Photos: Jeff Bezos marries Lauren Sanchez in a star-studded Italian ceremony

    Photos: Jeff Bezos marries Lauren Sanchez in a star-studded Italian ceremony

    Billionaire and founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos married long-time girlriend TV presenter Lauren Sanchez in a lavish Italian styled ceremony in Venice on Frida, June 27.

    The ceremony attracted royals, movie stars, models, tech giants trailed by paparazzi in water taxis as they made their way to the three-day event.

    Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom, Kylie Jenner and Ivanka Trump, the Kardashians, Bill Gates among others were present for the lavish event.

    Though star-studded, the couple held a strictly by invitation ceremony with about 200 guests,and 70 being close family members with Sanchez telling Vogue Sanchez that the event was “extremely intimate”.

    The festivities is expected to end withn a grand party featuring former medieval shipyard, where Lady Gaga and Elton John are expected to perform.

    Adorned in a lace Dolce & Gabbana haute couture gown that took 900 hours of atelier work, Sanchez told photographers that she “felt like a princess”.

    According to reports, Lauren Sánchez’s custom is estimated to cost between $250,000 and $400,000, though theexact price is yet to be disclosed.

    Friday’s ceremony took place on the small island of San Giorgio, where Matteo Bocelli – son of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli – reportedly performed.

    Oprah Winfrey, who attended the pair’s engagement party in 2023, was among the 200 guests
    Kim and Khloe Kardashian shared pictures from the event, and were later photographed speeding away in a water taxi

    Actor Orlando Bloom posed for photographers as he left the event
    A tuxedo-clad Bezos waved from a small motor boat

    While the exact cost of the wedding is not known, estimates range from $20m (£14m) to more than $50m.

    The event has attracted protests from a variety of groups in Venice, from locals fighting over-tourism to climate change activists.

    This will be the second wedding for both Sanchez and Bezos.

    The couple have seven children between them from previous marriages and relationships.

    They got engaged in May 2023 on board their 417-foot sailing yacht, Koru, named after a Maori symbol for “new life.”

    In November 2023, the pair held an engagement party in Beverly Hills, with Oprah Winfrey, Salma Hayek Pinault, Barbra Streisand, Kris Jenner in attendance.

    Reuters Fashion designer Domenico Dolce dressed in a black suit, black sunglasses, and jewellery
    Fashion designer Domenico Dolce, who helped to dress Sanchez for her big day
    EPA Open-mouthed onlookers point and aim their phone cameras towards Jeff Bezos (not pictured) and guests, spotting them from a boat in Venice.
    Excited onlookers spotted Jeff Bezos on his way to San Giorgio island in Venice
    People have travelled on Venice’s canals for centuries
    Khloe Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner braved the heat as the mercury rose in Venice
    US media personality Kris Jenner and her partner, manager Corey Gamble, were part of the Kardashian contingent
    US tech entrepreneur Bill Gates and partner Paula Hurd took in the sights

    Hollywood actor Leonardo Dicaprio tried to keep a low profile in a black baseball cap at the wedding
    Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos gave a joint thumbs-up at the Aman Hotel

  • Jeff Bezos announces intentions to sell another $5 billion in Amazon stock

    Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has announced plans to sell an additional 25 million shares of the tech giant, valued at nearly $5 billion.

    This decision follows a peak in the company’s stock market value earlier this week.

    Earlier this year, Bezos had disclosed intentions to sell Amazon shares worth approximately $8.5 billion, marking his first such move since 2021.

    Amazon’s stock has surged over 30% in 2024, driven by expectations of increased demand for artificial intelligence technologies, particularly benefiting its cloud computing division.

    Last month, Amazon’s market capitalization exceeded $2 trillion for the first time, although it still trails behind Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft, each surpassing the $3 trillion mark.

    Amazon recently reported strong quarterly earnings, underscoring the success of its AI investments.

    Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994 from a garage in Bellevue, Washington, now serves as its executive chair and remains its largest shareholder.

    Apart from Amazon, he also established Blue Origin, a space exploration firm that successfully launched six customers to the edge of space in May.

    According to Forbes’ Billionaires list, Bezos ranks as the world’s second wealthiest individual with an estimated net worth of around $214 billion.

  • Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sells shares for more than $4 billion

    Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sells shares for more than $4 billion

    Jeff Bezos, a wealthy individual, sold off more of his stake in Amazon.He made over $4 billion in sales in the past few days.
    The big technology company, which Mr. Bezos started in 1994, said he has sold 24 million Amazon stocks this month.

    Mr Bezos, who is in charge of the company, sold some of his shares in Amazon last year.

    Earlier this month, the company announced that it wants to sell 50 million shares in the next year. These shares are worth about $8. 4 billion at the current prices.

    12 million shares were sold on Friday, and another 12 million shares were sold on Tuesday, as stated in a regulatory filing.

    Mr Bezos has also donated some of his Amazon shares as part of his charitable giving, most recently in 2022.

    Last year, Mr. Bezos moved from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida. Because of this, he will save about $280 million in taxes on the $4 billion worth of stock he sold.

    Request for rich people to pay a minimum amount of tax.
    The Los Angeles Times is going to let go of 20% of its employees.

    If you make more than $250,000 from selling stocks or other investments that you’ve had for a long time, Washington state will tax you 7%. Florida does not take money from people’s earnings or profits from selling investments.

    However, he still has to pay federal taxes because he sold the shares.

    When Bezos said he was moving to Florida, people wondered if it was because he didn’t want to pay a new tax on selling stocks in Washington.

    He sold his Amazon shares after they went up by almost 70% in the last year.

    In November, Mr. Bezos said that his parents moved back to Miami where he spent part of his childhood. He wants to be near them and his space project, Blue Origin, which is moving more towards Cape Canaveral.

    “He wrote on Instagram that he and his fiancée Lauren Sánchez love Miami. ”

    “I’m planning to go back to Miami and leave the Pacific Northwest,” he said.

    Mr Bezos owns the most of Amazon and is one of the richest people in the world, with a lot of money – over $190 billion.

  • Amazon founder Jeff Bezos promises to give away most of his wealth

    Founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos has pledged to donate the majority of his money before he passes away.

    Bezos, currently the world’s fourth richest person based on Forbes billionaires list, also admitted that he wants to ensure that the worthiest causes benefits from his charity.

    Bezos made the pledge after donating $100 million to country singer Dolly Parton to give to charities of her choice as part of Bezos’s annual Courage and Civility award.

    Without providing further details, Bezos said he and partner Lauren Sánchez were “building the capacity to be able to give away this money”.

    Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle.

     

    He stepped down as chief executive to become executive chairman in July 2021 and now owns just under 10% of the company.

    He and his wife MacKenzie divorced in 2019 after 25 years of marriage and he transferred a quarter of his then 16% Amazon stake to her.

    Bezos has donated more than $400 million worth of stock to nonprofits in 2022, though it’s unclear which organizations received those shares.

    Bezos owns The Washington Post and Blue Origin, an aerospace company developing rockets.

    In the past, Bezos has been heavily criticized for his relative lack of largesse toward charity compared with some fellow billionaires.

    Bezos is not a signatory to the Giving Pledge, which encourages the world’s wealthiest to give half their net worth to philanthropy and was set up by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

    It has attracted more than 230 signatories including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

     

    Source: Classfmonline

     

  • Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth

    Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has said he plans to give away most of his $124bn (£107bn) fortune during his lifetime.

    The businessman told news network CNN he would donate his wealth to fighting climate change and reducing inequality.

    He has previously been criticised for not promising to dedicate his fortune to charity.

    Investor Warren Buffett, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Mr Bezos’s ex-wife MacKenzie Scott have all promised to give their money away.

    Mr Bezos revealed his plans after donating $100m to the country music star and philanthropist Dolly Parton to use for charitable causes.

    Asked by CNN whether he intended to give away most of his wealth within his lifetime, Mr Bezos told the network: “Yeah, I do.”

    He declined to provide details on where he would spend or donate the money, but said: “The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way.”

    He added that he and his partner, Lauren Sanchez, were “building the capacity to be able to give away this money”.

    Previous philanthropy

    The multi-billionaire previously pledged $10bn to the Bezos Earth Fund, which he launched in 2020 to help fight climate change.

    The move came after Mr Bezos and other entrepreneurs were criticised for spending vast amounts of money on trips into space instead of solving problems on Earth. Amazon had also been criticised in the past by its workers over its record on climate change.

    Mr Bezos became one of the richest people on the planet after Amazon, the internet retailer he founded in 1994, became a global phenomenon.

    He stepped down as Amazon chief executive in 2021 but remains chairman of its board. He also owns the Washington Post newspaper and space tourism company Blue Origin.

    On Sunday Mr Bezos gave Dolly Parton the Bezos Courage & Civility Award, which recognises leaders who “pursue solutions with courage and civility”.

    Ms Parton, who has supported causes such as child literacy, will be able to donate the cash to the charities of her choice.

    “We couldn’t have thought of someone better than to give this award to Dolly, and we know she’s going to do amazing things with it,” Ms Sanchez told CNN.

    In a video of the ceremony posted online, Ms Parton said “Wow! Did you say $100m?”

    She added: “I think people who are in a position to help should put their money where their heart is. I will do my best to do good things with this money.”

    Mr Bezos launched the award in 2021, with prizes going to activist Van Jones and chef and humanitarian Jose Andres, who established World Central Kitchen, which provides food in disaster-stricken countries.

    Ms Parton – a singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist – was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this month.

    She has been a high-profile supporter of charities and founded the Dollywood Foundation, which has given books to children around the world.

     

  • Jeff Bezos: Amazon founder plans to give most of his £110bn fortune away

    Jeff Bezos has revealed plans to give away most of his $124bn (£110bn) fortune during his lifetime.

    The Amazon founder, 58, is the world’s second-richest man after Elon Musk, the Tesla boss and new owner of Twitter, according to Forbes.

    This is the first time he has said he plans to give away most of his money.

    Mr Bezos has been criticised in the past for not signing the Giving Pledge, a campaign founded by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to encourage the mega rich to contribute most of their wealth to charity.

    Asked directly by CNN whether he planned to give most of his money away, Mr Bezos said: “Yeah, I do.”

    Bezos told the US broadcaster that he and partner journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sánchez were “building
    the capacity to be able to give away this money”.

    He said the money would go to causes that work to tackle climate change and to support people who can unify humanity.

    It was announced a week ago at the start of the COP27 summit that his Bezos Earth Fund had pledged $1bn more by 2030 to help protect carbon reserves and biodiversity – building on $9bn of funds already committed to the climate cause.

    Also last week it was revealed that country music star Dolly Parton had received a $100m (£85m) prize from Bezos.

     

    The courage and civility award gives people the chance to donate cash to causes of their choice.

    Parton, a long-time philanthropist herself, has already established a number of charities and put $1m towards the development of a COVID vaccine during the pandemic.

    Bezos has more time on his hands to devote to his passions after stepping down as chief executive of Amazon last year.

    He continues to own about 10% of the ecommerce-to-streaming giant.

    His other business interests include ownership of the Washington Post and space tourism company Blue Origin.

    Rishi Sunak walks past a group of traditional Balinese dancers

  • Dolly Parton: Country star gets $100m award from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

    Jeff Bezos has given country music star and philanthropist Dolly Parton a $100 million (£84.8 million) prize.

    Amazon’s multibillionaire founder, along with his partner, Lauren Sanchez, announced the award.

    Ms Sanchez described Parton as “a woman who gives with her heart and leads with love and compassion in every aspect of her work”.

    The Bezos Courage & Civility Award recognises leaders who “pursue solutions with courage and civility”.

    “We can’t wait to see all the good that you’re going to do with this $100 million award,” Ms Sanchez said.

    In a video of the ceremony posted online, Parton said “Wow! Did you say $100 million?”

    “I think people who are in a position to help should put their money where their heart is. I will do my best to do good things with this money,” she added.

     

    The award started in 2021, with prizes going to activist Van Jones and chef and humanitarian Jose Andres, who established World Central Kitchen, which provides food in disaster-stricken areas around the world.

    Parton – a singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist – was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this month.

    She has been a high-profile supporter of charities and founded the Dollywood Foundation, which has given books to children around the world.

    Parton has also been a vocal advocate of vaccination against Covid-19.

    She supported Moderna’s with a $1m donation for coronavirus research to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

  • World second-richest person: Indian tycoon oust Jeff Bezos

    The second-richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos, has just dropped to third place as Indian business tycoon Gautam Adani rapidly advances up Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

    With $260 billion in his bank account, Elon Musk, who is still the richest person in the world, may need to be careful.

    After beginning the year in position 14, Adani climbed from there to position 2 in less than ten months.

    Since white tech entrepreneurs have long dominated Bloomberg’s list, a person from Asia has never placed so high on the list.

    Adani’s $146.9 billion fortune, largely tied up in holdings of his sprawling Adani Group conglomerate, still trails well behind Musk’s $260 billion. The group operates a range of businesses including ports and coal that have thrived in recent years.
    Shares of some Adani companies have jumped more than 1,000% since June 2020 — reflecting investor optimism about the conglomerate’s strength in areas like infrastructure and renewable energy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has prioritized for development. Shares of his flagship Adani Enterprises are up more than 115% in 2022.
    In February, Adani overtook fellow Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani to become Asia’s wealthiest person.
    Bezos’s net worth slumped to $145.8 billion, according to Bloomberg, as tech stocks were hit hard amid a broader equities selloff Friday. Amazon shares fell 3% in early trading, and the stock is down more than 25% this year.
    The Amazon founder previously ranked No. 1 on the list, but his wealth took a hit after his 2019 divorce. Much of his wealth is tied up in Amazon stock. According to Bloomberg, the tech selloff has shaved $45 billion off Bezos’ net worth since January.

  • Jeff Bezos’ wealth has exploded to $150 billion since the beginning of the pandemic

    Jeff Bezos’ net worth is now at $150 billion again, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

    According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the Amazon CEO has added almost $35 billion to his net worth since the beginning of the year, meaning he is now worth $150 billion.

    Bezos’ wealth has been fairly steadily climbing since the beginning of this year.

    In early March, as the coronavirus pandemic started to take hold across the world, the company saw a “major surge” in demand per its first-quarter earnings call . The retail giant went on an enormous 175,000-person recruitment drive to cope with demand. The company’s stock has hovered above the $2,000 mark through the pandemic, closing at $2,483 on Friday. Bezos is the firm’s biggest insider shareholder, with more than 55 million shares.

    This is not the first time Bezos has hit the $150 billion milestone. He first attained it in July 2018 a feat which officially made him not only the richest person in the world, but also modern history . He is currently $35 billion ahead of the next-richest person in the world, Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

    As Bezos’ wealth grows, his company has come under scrutiny for its treatment of the warehouse workers who pick and pack items for online orders.

    In March the company introduced a temporary $2 pay rise on its usual $15 minimum hourly wage for warehouse workers, though this policy was discontinued at the beginning of this month .

    Workers have protested the firm , saying it has not introduced adequate safety protections for its frontline warehouse workers, eight of whom are reported to have died with COVID-19 .

    Source: markets.businessinsider.com

  • Coronavirus: Amazon boss Jeff Bezos adds US$24bn to fortune

    The founder and boss of Amazon has seen his wealth swell by $24bn (£19bn) after soaring demand for online shopping sent the firm’s share price to a new high.

    Jeff Bezos now has a fortune of US$138bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, cementing his position as the world’s richest man.

    Amazon has benefited from surging internet shopping by people forced to stay home during the COVID-19 outbreak.

    The firm has been recruiting thousands of workers to cope with demand.

    However, Amazon has also been criticized by employees in the US over workplace protection against the coronavirus.

    Mr. Bezos owns an 11% stake in Amazon and on Tuesday, the firm’s shares rose by 5.3%.

    The family behind retail giant Wal-Mart, which owns Asda in the UK, have also gained during the lockdown.

    The Waltons saw their net worth rise 5% this year to $169bn, making them the world’s richest family, according to Bloomberg.

    With millions now working from home, online meeting site Zoom has seen founder Eric Yuan’s fortune more than double to $7.4bn.

    The Bloomberg Billionaires Index said the world’s 500 richest people lost $553bn so far this year.

    Investors in the global oil and gas industries have seen sharp drops in net worth as crude prices plunged on reduced global demand and a row – now resolved – about oil production between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

    Rise to fame

    Mr Bezos started Amazon in 1995 with about $100,000 in personal and family money. He quit a hedge fund job at the age of 30 after coming across a statistic about the rapid growth of the internet.

    He was joined by his wife, MacKenzie, whom he met while they were both working at the New York hedge fund, DE Shaw. They have four children.

    The couple were divorced in 2019 in a split widely covered by the business media. MacKenzie’s $38bn settlement included a 4% stake in Amazon.

    Within a month of the launch, he had already shipped orders to all 50 states and 45 countries, according to a 2013 biography by Brad Stone entitled The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.

    In Amazon’s first five years, customer accounts jumped from 180,000 to 17 million. Sales skyrocketed from $511,000 to more than $1.6bn.

    Big-name investors flocked to the company amid the first wave of dotcom enthusiasm.

    It went public in 1997, raising $54m and turning Mr Bezos, who once helped to box up the book orders, into one of the world’s richest men before the age of 35.

    In 1999, Time Magazine named him one of its youngest People of the Year to date, dubbing him the “king of cybercommerce”.

    Source: bbc.com