Jeff Bezos timeline

Last updated on February 13, 2024

Jeffrey Preston Bezos, commonly known as Jeff Bezos, is an American entrepreneur with quite an intriguing biography, who played a vital role in the development of e-commerce as the founder of the online retail giant Amazon. Under his direction, Amazon.com grew from a small web bookstore into the largest retailer on the Internet and a model for conducting online sales.

However, that’s just one of the achievements under Mr. Bezos’ belt. For instance, in 2020, NASA partnered up with Bezos’ Blue Origin – and a handful of other companies – for their 2024 lunar landing within the Artemis program. Another example is the famous publication The Washington Post, which has been a part of the Bezos empire since 2013. On top of that, the Amazon founder manages a plethora of other business investments via the Bezos Expeditions venture capital fund.

For those who’d like to know the story of the controversial entrepreneur, we have created the Jeff Bezos timeline, which depicts important milestones regarding his personal life, education, career, and charity initiatives. Below the timeline, you’ll also find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Jeff Bezos – just in case you’d like to dig deeper into his biography.

The Jeff Bezos biography: a timeline

• 1964, January 12: Jeff Bezos is born
• 1978: Enrolls at Miami Palmetto High School
• 1982: Graduates from high school as valedictorian
• 1986: Electrical engineering & computer science degrees from Princeton (Summa Cum Laude)
• 1988: Is hired as product manager as Bankers Trust
• 1993: Jeff Bezos marries novelist Mackenzie Tuttle
• 1994, July 14: Founds Amazon as an online bookstore, which, as we know now, will turn out to be the most important milestone on Jeff Bezos’ timeline
• 1994, August 23: Moves to Seattle
• 1997: Takes Amazon public
• 1998: Diversifies Amazon’s product range
• 1999: Named “Person of the Year” by TIME Magazine
• 2000: Jeff Bezos founds Blue Origin
• 2003: Helicopter crash in West Texas
• 2008: Honorary doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University
• 2013: Secures contract with CIA
• 2013, January: Pledges $500,000 to Worldreader
• 2013, August: Purchases Washington Post
• 2014: Ranked as best-performing CEO by Harvard Business Review
• 2016: Stars in Star Trek Beyond
• 2017: Gives $1 million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
• 2017: Becomes the world’s richest person
• 2018, January: Donates $33 million to TheDream.US
• 2018, September: Pledges $2 billion to Day 1 Families & Day 1 Academies
• 2019, January 12: Jeff Bezos’ 55th birthday
• 2019, March: Saudi hacking accusation
• 2019, April 3: Divorces McKenzie
• 2019, July 13: 1st public appearance with his new life partner, Lauren Sanchez
• 2020, February: Bezos pledges $10 billion for combating climate change through his Earth Fund
• 2020, April: Donates $100 million to Feeding America
• 2021, July 5: Steps down as Amazon CEO
• 2021, September: Co-founds Altos Labs
• 2021, November: Donates $100 million to the Obama Foundation
• 2021: Loses the title of wealthiest person in the world to Elon Musk
• 2023, March: Gets engaged to Lauren Sánchez
• 2023, September: Wealth increases from $120bn to a $165bn, a 54% year on year growth

Frequently asked questions about Jeff Bezos’ life

The Jeff Bezos timeline can give you a glimpse into the life of the American investor. If you’re curious to find out more, check out our answers to the most common questions about Jeff Bezos’ life and career.

About the Jeff Bezos timeline

The Jeff Bezos biography was created with Office Timeline, a powerful and easy to use timeline maker that plugs right into Microsoft PowerPoint. The Jeff Bezos timeline slide can be downloaded free of charge and it is fully customizable, so you can edit it directly in PowerPoint. Alternatively, you can install the free trial of Office Timeline to update it faster and easily add any major milestones you think we might have missed! The timeline maker even lets you create your own timelines and roadmaps from scratch, all in a matter of minutes.

What does Jeff Bezos do with his money?

With that amount of wealth, who wouldn’t wonder what it’s like to live Jeff Bezos’ life or at least get a glimpse at what he does with all that money? Well, let’s see how the founder of Amazon spends his fortune:

• Investments in a multitude of companies;
• Vacations;
• Real estate – Bezos owns property all across the US; besides his home base in Medina, Seattle, he owns property in Washington D.C., in Beverly Hills, in New York City, and in Manhattan;
• Charity;
• A private jet;
• Expensive gadgets;
• A newspaper – Bezos allegedly bought The Washington Post for no other reason but to save it from extinction;
• His very own space travel company;
• Divorce – although this is not something one goes through regularly, Jeff Bezos and Mackenzie’s divorce has to be on this list, since the couple made history with the world’s most expensive settlement of all time.