Jeff Bezos is officially the richest man in the world with a net worth of 97.7 billion dollars, and Amazon’s third quarter earnings amounted to one of the largest revenues a company has ever acquired. In one day, Amazon’s stock increased by 127.42 million dollars, leading to an estimated increase in value of over fifty billion dollars.
This growth was caused by a colossal increase in Amazon’s sales, which now amounts to nearly fourty-four billion—over thirty-seven percent higher than what it was last year.
Even so, Amazon continues to invest its profits in major establishments like Whole Foods and Audible. As a result, both these companies have grown tremendously since being acquired by Amazon. They serve as examples of how aligning with Amazon and its vast supply of financial resources can benefit companies. Other personal purchases of Bezos’ include  The Washington Post.  According to Business Insider, its readership has increased since his purchase, even though he does not make editorial decisions.
According to NYU expert Scott Galloway, Amazon’s next object of desire could be Nordstrom, with the intention of developing their reputation for buying name brand companies. Amazon has invested in at least 128 companies from Paris to Dubai, as stated by Inc. magazine. Jerry Lavine from capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners says that when Amazon has a new commercial interest, “it will try to compete. If it can’t, it will ultimately buy the leader.”
According to its website, Amazon is planning to erect a five-billion-dollar headquarters equivalent in size to the one in Seattle. The new headquarters, called HQ2, is still in the planning phase.
According to The Atlantic, the mayor of Seattle, who has experience hosting the company in its original location, believes that it is important to address the widening socioeconomic gap, especially in regard to “people living in poverty, people of color, immigrants and refugees. There are specific things you can do to help mitigate that.”
The new office is most likely going to cause tremendous growth for Amazon and the surrounding community. The company claims that it will “create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment.”Amazon is evidently building a shrine to itself, much like Apple has done with its billion-dollar “Spaceship” campus and Microsoft with its billion -dollar Redmond Campus.
According to TIME Magazine, almost all of Bezos’ net worth comes from the Amazon stock he owns, since his salary only amounts to $81,840 a year. Right now, though, most of his earnings are dedicated to his budding space program “Blue Origins.”
The goal of Bezos’ space company is to create more reliable, affordable flights into space and to make space exploration more efficient. Although they have only reached suborbital flight, their goal is to send private corporations or groups into space and to rent out their rockets for a profit.
From online shopping to outer space, Jeff Bezos wields incredible influence and access to resources that could benefit himself and the world.