Jeff Bezos is well known for being one of the world’s richest people, so it shouldn’t come as a shock that he has a lot of money. What some may find surprising is just how he acquired his impressive net worth, and what he spends his wealth on.
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Quick Take: Jeff Bezos’ Net Worth
Jeff Bezos owns about 10.1% of Amazon, which makes him the biggest shareholder of Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer. Here are some key takeaways:
Jeff Bezos’ net worth: $220.7 billion
At the end of last year, Bezos sold about $214 million worth of Amazon shares, leaving him with about 926 million shares in the company — the main reason and source for his wealth.
The Amazon founder currently holds over 1 billion shares of the company. However, he has filed paperwork with the SEC to sell up to 25 million shares of Amazon stock over the course of the next 12 months.
The Amazon founder and tycoon has an extensive real estate portfolio, which experts estimate to be worth over $500 million.
He is currently ranked as the third richest person in the world behind Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Zuckerberg is in second place with $222.9 billion, and Musk is in first place with $429.2 billion.
Somewhere between graduating from Princeton University and deep space exploration, Bezos has accumulated over a quarter trillion dollars. Here are some more surprising facts about Amazon and Blue Origin Founder Jeff Bezos’ wealth.
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He Didn’t Earn a Huge Salary from Amazon
Though he stepped down as CEO of Amazon on July 5, 2021, Bezos remains Amazon’s executive chairman and biggest shareholder. However, while he was CEO, he probably wasn’t bringing in the paycheck you would expect.
For example, his annual salary from Amazon in 2020 was $81,840, which qualifies as a middle-income wage in his home state of California. He reportedly took no bonuses, stocks or options, although he did earn $1.6 million from other types of compensation.
His Amazon stock investment is another story altogether.
Bezos Makes More in a Second Than You Make in a Week
On average, experts can approximate that Bezos made about $8.99 billion per month, $2.25 billion per week or $321 million per day over the last few years. Other experts estimate that between the years 2023 and 2025, Bezos made about $8 million per hour, which is well above minimum wage, to say the least.
With the above numbers in mind, you can calculate how much Bezos makes in a second — approximately $3,715. That’s more than many Americans make working full-time for a weekly wage.
Bezos Was the First Person With $200 Billion
In August 2020, Bezos became the first person to achieve a net worth of $200 billion, exceeding French billionaire Bernard Arnault and Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, at the time. Now in 2025, he has an estimated net worth of $220.7 billion and rising. He is currently ranked the third richest person in the world behind now first place Musk and second place Mark Zuckerberg. Keep in mind that rankings are subject to change due to large fluctuations in the market or other investments.
He Purchased ‘The Washington Post’
Buying a major news syndicate can’t be done for just any pocket change. In 2013, Bezos bought “The Washington Post” for $250 million. Locally known as “The Post,” he scooped up this and other local publications, websites and real estate for that whopping price tag and successfully transferred ownership to Nash Holdings LLC, Bezos’s private investment company.
He’s Spent Billions on Blue Origin
Bezos founded private space travel company Blue Origin in 2000 and has been spending $1 billion to $2 billion of his own money per year on the company. In 2021, Bezos and three other passengers took an 11-minute flight on the Blue Origin vessel, New Glenn, crossing the 62-mile-high boundary, commonly accepted as the border between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
The flight costs more than $2.5 million per minute. The highest-priced ticket went to Oliver Daemen, who secured the fourth seat for a price of $28 million in a charity auction, according to the El Paso Times. To date in 2025, it is estimated that Bezos has sunk around $14.5 billion of his own money on the space exploration company.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 5 Mind-Blowing Facts About Jeff Bezos’ Wealth
