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Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos's AI file: Amazon, cloud money, giant bets, private capital, and the gleaming robber-baron energy that keeps wandering back into the machine age.
Bezos went from Princeton engineering and Wall Street to an online bookstore, turned it into the everything store, quietly created the cloud infrastructure layer beneath much of the internet, founded a private space company, bought a newspaper, and then stepped away from Amazon’s CEO job while the machine kept getting larger.
HOW THE HELL DID JEFF BEZOS GET HERE?
1986
PRINCETON: ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
Bezos graduated from Princeton in 1986 with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science before moving into finance and technology roles on Wall Street.
RECEIPTS: Princeton Engineeringreported
1990
HE RISES AT D.E. SHAW
Bezos joined quantitative investment firm D.E. Shaw in 1990 and became a senior vice president before leaving in 1994.
RECEIPTS: U.S. SEC / Amazonfirst-party
1994
HE LEAVES WALL STREET FOR AN ONLINE BOOKSTORE
Bezos moved to Seattle and founded Amazon in 1994, initially building the company around books sold over the internet.
RECEIPTS: Princeton Engineeringreported
2000
HE STARTS A ROCKET COMPANY TOO
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, adding long-horizon private spaceflight to the businesses surrounding him.
RECEIPTS: Princeton Engineeringreported
2006
AMAZON STARTS RENTING THE INTERNET'S ENGINE ROOM
Amazon launched AWS in 2006, turning internal infrastructure lessons into cloud services that would become one of the company’s most consequential businesses.
RECEIPTS: AWSfirst-party
2013
THE E-COMMERCE BARON BUYS THE WASHINGTON POST
Bezos became owner of The Washington Post in 2013, adding a major news institution to his personal holdings.
RECEIPTS: Princeton Engineeringreported
Jul 2021
BEZOS LEAVES THE CEO JOB
Bezos moved from Amazon chief executive to executive chair in July 2021 after more than two decades running the company.
RECEIPTS: U.S. SEC / Amazonfirst-party