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Search Britannica Click here to search Search Britannica Click here to search Login Subscribe Subscribe Home Quizzes & Games History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture Money Videos Warren Buffett Table of Contents Warren Buffett Table of Contents * Introduction & Top Questions Fast Facts * Facts & Related Content Top Questions * What is Warren Buffett's primary investment vehicle? * What charities does Warren Buffett donate money to? Media * Images More * More Articles On This Topic * Contributors * Article History Related Biographies * Cornelius Vanderbilt American industrialist and philanthropist [1794–1877] * Bill Gates American computer programmer, businessman, and philanthropist * Melinda Gates American businesswoman and philanthropist * Andrew Carnegie American industrialist and philanthropist * See All Home Politics, Law & Government Businesspeople & Entrepreneurs History & Society WARREN BUFFETT American businessman and philanthropist Actions Cite Share Give Feedback External Websites Print Cite Share Feedback External Websites Also known as: Warren Edward Buffett Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Jun 29, 2023 • Article History Table of Contents Warren Buffett See all media Category: History & Society Born: August 30, 1930 (age 92) Omaha Nebraska ...(Show more) Awards And Honors: Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011) ...(Show more) See all related content → RECENT NEWS Jun. 29, 2023, 1:16 PM ET (AP) Warren Buffett's firm buys more Occidental Petroleum and now owns more than 25% of the oil producer Billionaire Warren Buffett's company keeps buying shares of Occidental Petroleum, and Berkshire Hathaway now controls more than 25% of the oil producer Jun. 23, 2023, 1:09 PM ET (AP) Warren Buffett has given $50.7 billion toward historic pledges to the Gates Foundation and others After 17 years of steady payments, Warren Buffett has to date given annual donations totaling $50.7 billion toward his historic multibillion-dollar pledges to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and to four foundations connected to his family, according to a Chronicle tally Jun. 20, 2023, 7:34 PM ET (AP) Warren Buffett's firm raises stakes in Japanese trading houses as Nikkei hot streak continues Billionaire Warren Buffett's company increased its investments in five major Japanese trading houses for the second time this year to give Berkshire Hathaway control of 8.5% of each of those conglomerates Show More Show Less Top Questions WHAT IS WARREN BUFFETT KNOWN FOR? Warren Buffett, known as the "Oracle of Omaha," is an American businessman and philanthropist, widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century. He has amassed a personal fortune of more than $60 billion by defying prevailing investment trends. WHAT IS WARREN BUFFETT'S PRIMARY INVESTMENT VEHICLE? In 1965 Warren Buffett took majority control of the textile manufacturer Berkshire Hathaway Inc., turning it into his primary investment vehicle. From the 1960s through the ’90s Berkshire Hathaway’s publicly traded shares gained about 28 percent per year. Buffett’s success with Berkshire Hathaway made him one of the world’s wealthiest men. WHAT CHARITIES DOES WARREN BUFFETT DONATE MONEY TO? In June 2006 Warren Buffett announced that he would donate more than 80 percent of his wealth to charitable foundations. The main recipient was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is focused on issues of world health and education. The other organizations were those run by Buffett’s three children and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late wife. WHEN WAS WARREN BUFFETT AWARDED THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM? Warren Buffett was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Warren Buffett, in full Warren Edward Buffett, (born August 30, 1930, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.), American businessman and philanthropist, widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th and early 21st centuries, having defied prevailing investment trends to amass a personal fortune of more than $100 billion. Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett was the son of U.S. Rep. Howard Homan Buffett from Nebraska. After graduating from the University of Nebraska (B.S., 1950), he studied with Benjamin Graham at the Columbia University School of Business (M.S., 1951). In 1956 Buffett returned to Omaha and in 1965 took majority control of the textile manufacturer Berkshire Hathaway Inc., turning it into his primary investment vehicle. From the 1960s through the ’90s the major stock averages rose by roughly 11 percent annually, but Berkshire Hathaway’s publicly traded shares gained about 28 percent per year. Though Buffett’s success with Berkshire Hathaway made him one of the world’s wealthiest men, he eschewed lavish spending and criticized governmental policies and taxation that favoured the rich over the middle or lower classes. In June 2006 Buffett announced that he planned to donate more than 80 percent of his wealth to charitable foundations; in 2020 he raised that amount to 99 percent. The main recipient was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—created by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his then wife, Melinda—which focused on issues of world health and education; Bill and Buffett had maintained a close friendship since the early 1990s. The other organizations receiving donations included those run by Buffett’s three children and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late wife, which focused on women’s reproductive rights and funded college scholarship programs. In 2010 Buffett and the Gateses created the Giving Pledge, an invitation to other wealthy individuals to donate the majority of their fortune to charities. Warren Buffett and Barack Obama During the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–08, Buffett made a number of deals that, though questioned at the time, proved highly profitable. In September 2008 he invested $5 billion in the U.S.-based bank holding company Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and the following month Berkshire Hathaway purchased $3 billion in General Electric Company (GE) preferred stock. In November 2009 Buffett announced that Berkshire was buying the railroad company Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation for about $26 billion; the investment group already owned approximately 23 percent of the railroad. Berkshire Hathaway also had significant shareholdings in companies it did not control, including Coca Cola and Apple. In 2011 Buffett was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen. Jeff Bezos Table of Contents Jeff Bezos Table of Contents * Introduction & Top Questions * Early life and career * Amazon.com * Other activities * Personal life Fast Facts * Jeff Bezos summary * Facts & Related Content Top Questions * How did Jeff Bezos start Amazon? * Was Jeff Bezos born rich? Read Next * Timeline of the 1990s Media * Images More * More Articles On This Topic * Contributors * Article History Related Biographies * Tim O’Brien American author * Gregory Olsen American scientist and entrepreneur * Mark Zuckerberg American computer programmer and entrepreneur * Perry Chen American entrepreneur * See All Home Politics, Law & Government Businesspeople & Entrepreneurs JEFF BEZOS American entrepreneur Actions Cite Share Give Feedback External Websites Print Cite Share Feedback External Websites Also known as: Jeffrey Preston Bezos Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Jun 12, 2023 • Article History Table of Contents Jeff Bezos See all media Born: January 12, 1964 (age 59) Albuquerque New Mexico ...(Show more) Founder: Amazon.com Blue Origin ...(Show more) Notable Family Members: son of Miguel ("Mike") Bezos son of Jacklyn ("Jackie") Bezos son of Ted Jorgensen married to Mackenzie Scott (1993–2019) brother of Mark Bezos brother of Christina Bezos ...(Show more) See all related content → Top Questions WHO IS JEFF BEZOS? Jeff Bezos is an American entrepreneur who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, an online retailer. In 2020 he had a net worth of more than $180 billion. HOW DID JEFF BEZOS START AMAZON? Jeff Bezos quit his job at an investment bank in 1994 and moved to Seattle, Washington, to open a virtual bookstore. Working out of his garage with a handful of employees, Bezos began developing the software for the site, which he called Amazon.com. It sold its first book in 1995. WHERE WAS JEFF BEZOS BORN? Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964. He was raised largely in Houston, Texas, and moved to Miami, Florida, as a teenager. WAS JEFF BEZOS BORN RICH? Jeff Bezos was not born into a wealthy family. His parents were 17 and 18 years old when he was born, and he worked on his maternal grandparents’ ranch in Cotulla, Texas, early in his life. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1986, with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. WHAT WAS JEFF BEZOS’S FIRST JOB? As a teenager, Jeff Bezos got his first job at a McDonald’s restaurant, where he was a fry cook. His salary was less than $3 per hour. After graduating from Princeton University, he worked at Fitel, an international trade start-up. Jeff Bezos , byname of Jeffrey Preston Bezos, (born January 12, 1964, Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.), American entrepreneur who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, Inc., an online merchant of books and later of a wide variety of products. Under his guidance, Amazon became the largest retailer on the World Wide Web and the model for Internet sales. EARLY LIFE AND CAREER Jeff Bezos While still in high school, Bezos developed the Dream Institute, a centre that promoted creative thinking in young students. After graduating (1986) summa cum laude from Princeton University with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, he undertook a series of jobs before joining the New York investment bank D.E. Shaw & Co. in 1990. Soon named senior vice president—the firm’s youngest—Bezos was in charge of examining the investment possibilities of the Internet. Its enormous potential—Web usage was growing by more than 2,000 percent a year—sparked his entrepreneurial imagination. In 1994 he quit D.E. Shaw and moved to Seattle, Washington, to open a virtual bookstore. Working out of his garage with a handful of employees, Bezos began developing the software for the site. Named after the South American river, Amazon sold its first book in July 1995. AMAZON.COM Jeff Bezos Amazon quickly became the leader in e-commerce. Open 24 hours a day, the site was user-friendly, encouraging browsers to post their own reviews of books and offering discounts, personalized recommendations, and searches for out-of-print books. In June 1998 it began selling CDs, and later that year it added videos. In 1999 Bezos added auctions to the site and invested in other virtual stores. The success of Amazon encouraged other retailers, including major book chains, to establish online stores. As more companies battled for Internet dollars, Bezos saw the need to diversify, and by 2005 Amazon offered a vast array of products, including consumer electronics, apparel, and hardware. Amazon diversified even further in 2006 by introducing Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud-computing service that eventually became the largest such service in the world. In late 2007 Amazon released a new handheld reading device called the Kindle, a digital book reader with wireless Internet connectivity, enabling customers to purchase, download, read, and store a vast selection of books on demand. Amazon announced in 2010 that sales of Kindle books had surpassed those of hardcover books. That same year Amazon moved into making its own television shows and movies with its Amazon Studios division. Amazon’s yearly net sales increased from $510,000 in 1995 to some $600 million in 1998 and from more than $19.1 billion in 2008 to almost $233 billion in 2018. About half of the company’s operating income in 2018 was derived from AWS. Two years later Amazon registered record profits, and its revenue in the fourth quarter that year surpassed $100 billion for the first time. The unprecedented numbers were, in part, caused by a rise in home shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2021 Bezos announced that he would be stepping down as CEO later that year. However, he planned to remain at Amazon as executive chairman. OTHER ACTIVITIES Aside from Amazon, Bezos founded a spaceflight company, Blue Origin, in 2000. Blue Origin bought a launch site in Texas soon thereafter and planned to introduce a crewed suborbital spacecraft, New Shepard, in 2018 and an orbital launch vehicle, New Glenn, in 2020. Bezos bought The Washington Post and affiliated publications for $250 million in 2013. Bezos’s net worth was calculated in 2018 at $112 billion, making him the richest person in the world. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now PERSONAL LIFE In 1993 Bezos married Mackenzie Tuttle, whom he had met at D.E. Shaw. The couple announced in January 2019 that they were divorcing, and the following day the National Enquirer printed a story revealing that Bezos was having an affair with another woman. Bezos subsequently launched an investigation into how the tabloid had obtained his private text messages. Then, in February, he posted a lengthy essay online in which he accused officials at American Media Inc. (AMI), the parent company of the Enquirer, of “extortion and bribery” for suggesting that they would release nude photographs of Bezos if he did not stop his inquiry, amid other demands. The Bezos-led investigation later alleged that his lover’s brother had leaked the texts. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn. Load Next Page Feedback Corrections? 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Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Warren Buffett". Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Jun. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Warren-Edward-Buffett. Accessed 20 July 2023. Copy Citation Share Share to social media Facebook Twitter URL https://www.britannica.com/biography/Warren-Edward-Buffett Share Share to social media Facebook Twitter URL https://www.britannica.com/biography/Warren-Edward-Buffett External Websites * Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame and Museum - Biography of Warren Buffet * The Balance - How Did Warren Buffett Become So Rich? verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Warren Buffett". 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Feedback Type Select a type (Required) Factual Correction Spelling/Grammar Correction Link Correction Additional Information Other Your Feedback Submit Feedback Thank you for your feedback Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Jeff Bezos". Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Jun. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeff-Bezos. Accessed 20 July 2023. Copy Citation Share Share to social media Facebook Twitter URL https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeff-Bezos Share Share to social media Facebook Twitter URL https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jeff-Bezos External Websites * Academy of Achievement - Jeffrey P. 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