Jeff Bezos

{{cquote|Jeff Bezos recommends you take a step back and reflect on what matters. Like the roof over your head, or the sound of a child's laugh, or the $600,000 you make every single day.|||The New Yorker<ref>The New Yorker (May 13, 2020). [http://archive.today/2025.05.26-085808/https://x.com/NewYorker/status/1260591656346308609 "In @tnyshouts, Jeff Bezos recommends you take a step back and reflect on what matters. Like the roof over your head, or the sound of a child’s laugh, or the $600,000 you make every single day."] ''Twitter''.</ref>}}
[[File:Jeff Bezos visits LAAFB SMC (3908618) (cropped).jpeg|right|thumb|180px|The real life Lex Luthor.]]{{business}}
'''Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos''' {{lived|1964}} is an [[United States of America|American]] businessman and billionaire. He is the former CEO and current Executive Chairman of the Board of {{wpl|Amazon (company)|Amazon|,}} which gave him money to buy the ''[[The Washington Post]]'' and found private space company Blue Origin, among other less successful business ventures. (The ''WaPo'' has lost tens of millions of dollars a year under Bezos' ownership, and 24 years after founding Blue Origin, Bezos described it as "not a good business yet.")<ref>Jeremy Barr, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/05/22/washington-post-will-lewis-subscriptions/ Washington Post announces new subscription plans in bid to boost revenue], ''Washington Post'', May 22, 2024</ref><ref>Rich Smith, [https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/02/22/blue-origin-prepares-for-layoffs-heres-what-space/ Blue Origin Prepares for Layoffs. Here's What Space Stock Investors Need to Know], ''Motley Fool'', Feb 22, 2025 </ref> As of the end of 2024, he is the third richest person in the world. He was once the single richest person in the world, beginning in 2017 (when he surpassed [[Bill Gates]]),<ref>Robert Frank (October 27, 2017). [https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/27/jeff-bezos-is-now-the-richest-man-in-the-world-with-90-billion.html "Jeff Bezos is now the richest man in the world with $90 billion"]. ''CNBC''.</ref> but this is prone to fluctuation; at various points he's been overtaken by others such as [[Elon Musk]] and [[Mark Zuckerberg]].<ref>(January 7, 2021). [https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55578403 "Elon Musk becomes world's richest person as wealth tops $185bn"]. ''BBC News''.</ref><ref>Theo Burman (May 22, 2025). [https://www.newsweek.com/mark-zuckerberg-jeff-bezos-global-billionaire-ranking-2075601 "Mark Zuckerberg Overtakes Jeff Bezos in Global Billionaire Ranking"]. ''Newsweek''.</ref> But that's no matter. His yacht still has a yacht.<ref>Allison Morrow (May 10, 2021). [https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/10/business/jeff-bezos-yacht "Jeff Bezos' superyacht is so big it needs its own yacht"]. ''CNN Business''.</ref><ref>Emily Burack (August 11, 2022). [https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a38973492/jeff-bezos-yacht-bridge-rotterdam-destruction/ "Rotterdam Now Won't Dismantle a Historic Bridge for Jeff Bezos's Superyacht"]. ''Town & Country Magazine''. Quote: "Along with making history as the largest sailing yacht, Bezos's Y271 is the longest yacht to have ever been built in the Netherlands, and Oceano's largest ever superyacht. It is also rumored to come with a 'support yacht,' also called a shadow vessel. The superyacht likely cost more than $500 million to build, per Bloomberg."</ref>

If [[reptilian]] conspiracy theories were ever proven to be true, he would be a known [[cannibal]] on account of eating an iguana.<ref>Peter Farquhar (March 13, 2018). [https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-a-picture-of-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-eating-an-iguana-2018-3 "Here's a picture of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos eating an iguana"]. ''Business Insider''.</ref> However, one can't rule out that he may instead be a human who managed against all odds to outdo the reptilians, thus eating lizards as a display of dominance. One reptilian got back at Bezos for this with a petition demanding he use his wealth to buy and eat the famous Mona Lisa painting.<ref>Jody Serrano (June 19, 2021). [https://gizmodo.com/thousands-have-signed-an-online-petition-for-jeff-bezos-1847136299 "Thousands Have Signed an Online Petition for Jeff Bezos to Buy and Eat the Mona Lisa"]. ''Gizmodo''.</ref><ref>Anna P. Kambhampaty (June 18, 2021). [http://archive.today/2021.06.19-121052/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/style/bezos-mona-lisa-change-petition.html "Why Do People Want Jeff Bezos to Buy and Eat the Mona Lisa?"]. ''The New York Times''.</ref>

==Business ventures==
===Amazon===
Amazon is a company Bezos founded in 1994, originally as an online bookstore.<ref name="AmazonHistoryIE">Christopher McFadden (2021). [https://interestingengineering.com/culture/a-very-brief-history-of-amazon-the-everything-store "A very brief history of Amazon: the everything store"]. ''Interesting Engineering''.</ref> It was briefly named "Cadabra", but this sounded too much like "cadaver",<ref name="MichiganAmazon">Colby Hopkins (May 1, 2023). [https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mje/2023/05/01/the-history-of-amazon-and-its-rise-to-success/ "The History of Amazon and its Rise to Success"]. ''The Michigan Journal of Economics'' (University of Michigan).</ref> which is another word for "corpse". By some accounts from the future, that would've been appropriate.<ref>Isobel Asher Hamilton (July 5, 2021). [https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-keeps-talking-about-amazons-inevitable-death-2018-12 "As Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos was obsessed with the company's 'inevitable' death"]. ''Business Insider''.</ref> For now, it lives as much more than a bookstore; it expanded into selling [[Video game|computer game]]s and [[music]] in 1998,<ref name="AmazonHistoryIE"/> then first turned a proper profit in 2003, gradually expanding into a more generalized online shopping giant.<ref name="MichiganAmazon"/> {{w|E-commerce}} remains its flagship operation, but they have a hand in many industries.<ref name="AmazonHistoryIE"/> Overall, Bezos sees it as a [[technology]] company, and Amazon often integrates [[sci-fi]] trickery like [[AI]] or robotics into its operations.<ref name="AmazonHistoryIE"/> (Though some say it's less "sci-fi" and more "[[dystopian]]".<ref>Lauren Kaori Gurley (September 20, 2021). [https://www.vice.com/en/article/amazons-ai-cameras-are-punishing-drivers-for-mistakes-they-didnt-make/ "Amazon's AI Cameras Are Punishing Drivers for Mistakes They Didn't Make"]. ''Vice''.</ref><ref>Owen Bellwood (September 4, 2024). [https://www.jalopnik.com/amazon-bans-its-drivers-from-moving-their-own-lips-too-1851639312/ "Amazon Drivers Complain Their Ability To Sing Along With The Radio Is Being Stifled: Report"]. ''Jalopnik''.</ref>)

About 75 percent of American consumers have an Amazon Prime subscription.<ref>Alex Bitter (April 17, 2024). [https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-has-180-million-members-report-shows-2024-4 "Americans are obsessed with Amazon Prime, and it shows"]. ''Business Insider''.</ref> This sort of prominence places them among the biggest targets for [[populist]]s scrutinizing [[corporate]] malfeasance, cast as something like a [[Walmart]] equivalent for the [[Internet]] age. Unlike Walmart, they will send a [[drone]] carrying a {{w|lithium-ion battery}} to your house.<ref>AJ Dellinger (May 20, 2025). [https://gizmodo.com/faa-gives-amazons-drones-the-go-ahead-to-carry-lithium-ion-batteries-2000604736 "FAA Gives Amazon’s Drones the Go-Ahead to Carry Lithium-Ion Batteries"]. ''Gizmodo''.</ref>

====Twitter army====
Amazon used to have an official army of [[Twitter]] posters called "FC Ambassadors" (with "FC" standing for "fulfillment centers"), who would assure you they had never seen anyone working for the company urinate in a bottle. It went about as well one would expect.<ref>Jon Brodkin (January 26, 2022). [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/01/amazon-ends-widely-mocked-scheme-that-turned-workers-into-twitter-ambassadors/ "Amazon ends widely mocked scheme that turned workers into Twitter 'ambassadors'"]. ''Ars Technica''.</ref><ref>Mary Hanbury (August 16, 2019). [https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-fc-ambassadors-program-backfires-after-twitter-thread-2019-8 "Amazon's army of tweeting warehouse workers backfired spectacularly this week after a thread about working conditions went viral"]. ''Business Insider''.</ref>

====Workers' rights abuses====
{{main|Workers' rights}}
In 2021, ''[[The New York Times]]'' released an investigative report on the company short-changing their workers’ paychecks.<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/10/25/a-hard-hitting-investigative-report-into-amazon-shows-that-workers-needs-were-neglected-in-favor-of-getting-goods-delivered-quickly/ A Hard-Hitting Investigative Report Into Amazon Shows That Workers’ Needs Were Neglected In Favor Of Getting Goods Delivered Quickly], Forbes.com</ref> Another was in 2023, when Amazon workers in [[Saudi Arabia]] were deceived and exploited.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/saudi-arabia-migrants-workers-who-toiled-in-amazon-warehouses-were-deceived-and-exploited/ Saudi Arabia: Migrants workers who toiled in Amazon warehouses were deceived and exploited], [[Amnesty International]]</ref>

===The ''Washington Post''===
{{cquote|It's time to give the [[elite]]s a bigger say in choosing the president.|||The ''Washington Post'', 2020<ref>(February 21, 2020). [https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/347381/wapo-changes-headline-calling-for-elites-to-choo.html "'WaPo' Changes Headline Calling For Elites To Choose President"]. ''MediaPost''.</ref>}}
On August 5, 2013, he purchased the ''Washington Post'' in a $250 million USD deal.<ref>James O'Toole (August 5, 2013). [https://money.cnn.com/2013/08/05/news/companies/washington-post-bezos/index.html Amazon's Bezos buys ''Washington Post'' for $250 million], ''[[CNN|CNN Business]]''.</ref> His tenure at the ''Post'' has been contentious, growing in increased scrutiny in the 2020s. For the first time ever, the ''Post'' refused to endorse a candidate in the 2024 United States election. Because of this, it had several long-time contributors and writers resign in protest.<ref>Hadas Gold (October 28, 2024). [https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/28/media/washington-post-endorsement-subscribers-resign Three ''Washington Post'' editorial board members step down amid wave of canceled subscriptions over non-endorsement], ''CNN''.</ref>

===Blue Origin===
Any billionaire can have a super yacht, but Bezos has a space program. {{wpl|Blue Origin}} Enterprises, L.P. was founded in 2000 and relied on financial patronage. In 2021 a Blue Origin rocket carried Bezos and four others 100 km above sea level, letting him say he had been in space for several minutes. Other sub-orbital flights followed. In 2025 Blue Origin successfully launched a New Glenn rocket into orbit around Earth. The company talks about building a business park on a space station called Orbital Reef. Blue Origin has received some contracts from NASA and the US Air Force, and has charged some of its space tourists, but as of 2025 almost all its funds appear to have come from Bezos and his friends.

The Blue Alchemist program proposes to make solar cells out of lunar regolith (dust), which could power activities on the [[Moon]].<ref>[https://www.blueorigin.com/news/blue-alchemist-hits-major-milestone-toward-permanent-sustainable-lunar-infrastructure Blue Alchemist Hits Major Milestone Toward Permanent and Sustainable Lunar Infrastructure], ''Blue Origin'', September 10, 2025</ref>

Blue Origin has spun off startups such as Interlune which proposes to harvest Helium-3 from the Moon.<ref>Mehanaz Yakub, [https://magazine.cim.org/en/news/2025/mining-the-moon-s-helium-en/ Mining the moon’s helium], ''Cim Magazine'', September 25, 2025</ref> [[Fusion woo|Helium-3 for nuclear fusion]] is out of favour so Interlune proposes to sell it to a company that cools [[quantum computer]]s instead.<ref>Greg De Temmerman, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2021.05.003 The helium bubble: Prospects for 3He-fuelled nuclear fusion], ''Joule'', Volume 5, Issue 6, 16 June 2021, pages 1312-1315 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2021.05.003 {{quotebox|As neutrons can damage materials and limit their lifetime in the extreme environment of a fusion reactor, other potential fuels have been proposed that would strongly reduce or eliminate neutron formation. Among them, helium-3 (<sup>3</sup>He), one of the isotopes of helium, is often mentioned, motivated by the discovery that the moon contains significant amounts of this species, although it is virtually non-existent on Earth. As such, helium-3 is a reason often mentioned to go back to the moon and exploit its resources. Unfortunately, in many aspects, <sup>3</sup>He fusion is much harder to achieve.}}</ref>

==Politics==
In 2025, Bezos enforced that the opinion columns of ''The Washington Post'', which he owns, would be narrowly focused on defending "two pillars: personal [[Liberty|liberties]] and [[free market]]s".<ref>(February 26, 2025). [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/washington-post-owner-bezos-says-opinion-pages-shift-from-broad-focus-to-will-defend-free-market-and-personal-liberties "Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos says opinion pages will defend free market and 'personal liberties'"]. ''PBS''.</ref> This made [[Cato]] happy,<ref>Ryan Bourne and Sophia Bagley (February 28, 2025). [https://www.cato.org/commentary/jeff-bezos-pro-liberty-newspaper "Jeff Bezos and A Pro-Liberty Newspaper?"]. ''Cato Institute''.</ref> and suggests he would likely identify as something in the realm of a [[classical liberal]] or [[libertarian]]. Don't ask which — personal liberties or free markets — take precedence if/when they're at odds, please.<ref>Robert McCoy (March 17, 2025). [https://progressive.org/latest/what-jeff-bezos-wont-let-opinion-columnists-tell-you-about-corporate-overreach-mccoy-20250317/ "What Jeff Bezos Won’t Let Opinion Columnists Tell You About Corporate Overreach"]. ''The Progressive''.</ref>

===Seattle City Council===
As of 2019, Seattle had a [[socialist]] (more precisely a [[Trotskyist]] {{w|Socialist Alternative (United States)|Socialist Alternative}} member) on the city council by the name of {{w|Kshama Sawant||.}} Bezos evidently didn't appreciate this very much, since Amazon (both founded and headquartered in Seattle) dumped some $1.5 million into unseating her and {{w|Lisa Herbold}} during the {{w|2019 Seattle City Council election||.}}<ref>Daniel Beekman and Jim Brunner (October 15, 2019). [https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/amazon-drops-additional-1-million-plus-into-seattle-city-council-races-with-ballots-mailing-this-week/ "Amazon drops additional $1 million-plus into Seattle City Council races, with ballots out this week"]. ''The Seattle Times''. [https://archive.ph/Rzsed (Archived)].</ref> Both Herbold and Sawant were re-elected nevertheless.

===Bloomberg 2020===
In 2019, Bezos reportedly called up fellow billionaire [[Michael Bloomberg]] to encourage him to run for President, and he later did.<ref>Andy Kiersz (November 9, 2019). [https://www.businessinsider.com/recode-report-jeff-bezos-asked-michael-bloomberg-about-presidential-run-2019-11 "Jeff Bezos reportedly called Michael Bloomberg and asked him if he would run for president earlier this year"]. ''Business Insider''.</ref> This little bit of billionaire solidarity offered great foil for rabble-rouser [[Bernie Sanders]],<ref>Kyle Balluck (November 10, 2019). [https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/469772-sanders-ocasio-cortez-see-class-solidarity-in-report-bezos-asked-bloomberg/ "Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez see ‘class solidarity’ in report Bezos asked Bloomberg to run"]. ''The Hill''.</ref> who nonetheless never made his way to the [[White House]]. Sanders had made Bezos out as an icon of [[economic inequality]], and in 2018 proposed a bill named after him (the "Bezos Act") aimed at forcing companies like Amazon to either raise wages or pay taxes equivalent to the welfare their employees were using.<ref>Jillian D'Onfro (September 5, 2018). [https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/05/bernie-sanders-introduces-the-bezos-act-slamming-amazon-low-wages.html "Bernie Sanders introduces the Bezos Act, slamming Amazon's low wages"]. ''CNBC''.</ref><ref>Kit Norton (August 28, 2018). [https://vtdigger.org/2018/08/28/sanders-introduce-bezos-bill-next-month/ "Sanders to introduce 'Bezos Bill' next month"]. ''VTDigger''.</ref> One of Bloomberg's own opinion writers suggested in 2018 that Sanders's critiques struck more of a nerve with Amazon than [[Donald Trump]]'s did, even as the latter held a more powerful office.<ref>Shira Ovide (August 30, 2018). [https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-30/amazon-doesn-t-mind-trump-but-bernie-sanders-strikes-a-nerve "Amazon Doesn't Mind Trump, But Bernie Sanders Strikes a Nerve"]. ''Bloomberg Opinion''.</ref>

===Attempted recruitment by EA ''et al.''===

Several groups in the [[TESCREAL]] space have attempted to recruit Bezos (or his wallet).  [[Kelsey Piper]]'s first story for ''[[Vox]]'' suggested that Bezos should follow the principles of [[Effective Altruism]] (EA) when donating his wealth (if that sounded complicated, her friends would be glad to help).<ref>https://www.vox.com/2018/9/21/17880000/jeff-bezos-amazon-philanthropy-gift-2-billion</ref> In 2022, Bezos praised [[LessWrong|rationalist]] podcaster Dwarkesh Patel.<ref>https://beginnermaps.com/how-dwarkesh-a-cs-grad-started-a-podcast-and-blog-that-counts-jeff-bezos-as-a-reader/</ref><ref>https://x.com/JeffBezos/status/1514689258535145474 archived https://archive.ph/PRF8p</ref><ref>https://www.theojaffee.com/p/9-dwarkesh-patel {{quotebox|Theo: With the people you talk to, would you say you're adjacent to the rationalist community?

Dwarkesh: Yeah.}}</ref> In 2025 he reportedly invested in a life-extension startup called {{wpl|Altos Labs}} (life extension and longevity is [[Transhumanism#Radical_life_extension|often a transhuman project]]).<ref>Antonio Regalado, [https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/04/1034364/altos-labs-silicon-valleys-jeff-bezos-milner-bet-living-forever/ "Meet Altos Labs, Silicon Valley’s latest wild bet on living forever,"] ''MIT Technology Review'', September 4, 2021</ref> Previously he invested in a company exploring treatments for senescence called {{wpl|Unity Biotechnology}} with Peter Thiel. Bezos does not seem to be a frequent supporter like {{wpl|Jaan Tallinn||,}} [[Peter Thiel]], or [[Elon Musk]].

In 2023, Jeff Bezos seemed to endorse longtermism or cosmism in an interview with podcaster [[Lex Fridman]]:
{{quotebox|I would love to see a trillion humans living in the solar system. If we had a trillion humans, we would have, at any given time, 1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins. That our solar system would be full of life and intelligence and energy. And we can easily support a civilization that large with all of the resources in the solar system.<ref>Ellyn Lapointe, [https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-plan-colonize-space-experts-say-2024-6 Jeff Bezos has a vision to colonize space with a trillion people. We asked experts to put it to the test.] Business Insider, July 13, 2024</ref><ref>Transcript for [https://lexfridman.com/jeff-bezos-transcript Lex Fridman Podcast #405 Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin]</ref>}}

His specific flavour of [[Futurism#Retrofuturism|retrofuturism]] was O'Neill Cylinders rather than Mars colonies. Scottish science-fiction writer Charlie Stross listed Bezos as one of the billionaires trying to bring 20th-century science fiction to life with no awareness that some of it was a cautionary tale and the rest was written to entertain readers not provide a serious technical roadplan.<ref>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tech-billionaires-need-to-stop-trying-to-make-the-science-fiction-they-grew-up-on-real/</ref>

==See also==
*[[Enshittification#Amazon|Enshittification § Amazon]]

==References==
{{reflist|1}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bezos, Jeff}}
[[Category:Billionaires]]
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Oligarchic escapes]]

Categories: Billionaires, Business, Living people, Oligarchic escapes