Jeff Bezos’s Net Worth Is 1.7 Million Times the Median U.S. Household Income
Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $121 billion, making him one of the world's richest people. Surprisingly, he doesn't have much of that in cash.
March 29 2023, Updated 1:37 p.m. ET
Like the Blue Origin launch vehicle that took him to space in July 2021, Jeff Bezos's net worth has been skyrocketing — and apparently he has much of that money in cash.
This year, the title of the wealthiest person in the world has alternated between Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, with their fortunes hovering around the $200 billion mark.
While Bezos managed to claim the top spot in mid-August 2021, he has since sunk to third place with a net worth of $121 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Of course, all that money puts Bezos under the scrutiny of those who wish ultra-billionaires would share the wealth a little.
How much does Jeff Bezos have in cash?
Majority of Jeff Bezos's money is tied up in public assets.
According to Bloomberg, Bezos’s net worth comprises $12.7 billion in cash, $11.2 billion in private assets, and $96.5 billion in public assets as of March 2023. He currently owns about 10 percent of Amazon.
Bloomberg also reports that Bezos’s net worth “can buy 61.3 million troy ounces of gold [and] 1.53 billion barrels of crude oil and is equivalent to 0.517 percent of the GDP of the United States, 1.65 percent of the total wealth of the 500 richest people in the world, 30.5 percent of the top 100 U.S. college endowments, 1,909 percent of the top 200 U.S. executives’ total awarded compensation, 6.62 percent of U.S. existing home sales, [and] 1,703,495 times the median U.S. household income.”
What does Jeff Bezos say about his net worth?
Jeff Bezos with his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez.
In a 2018 conversation with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Bezos said that the “only way” he can imagine deploying “this much financial resource” is to spend the money on space travel — specifically through Blue Origin, his spaceflight company.
“Blue Origin is expensive enough to be able to use that fortune, and I’m currently liquidating about a billion dollars a year of Amazon stock to fund Blue Origin, and I plan to continue to do that for a long time,” he explained. “I’m very lucky because I feel like I have a mission-driven purpose with Blue Origin that is I think incredibly important for civilization long-term, and I am gonna use my financial lottery winnings from Amazon to fund that.”
In addition to using his money to fund space exploration, Bezos is also a giver. Bloomberg noted that in 2018, the billionaire committed $2 billion to social issues, and in February 2020, he pledged to donate $10 billion to addressing climate change. During a 2022 interview with CNN, Bezos, who was seated alongside his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, admitted that he plans to donate the majority of his wealth over his lifetime.
What do others say about Bezos’s net worth?
In a Squawk Box appearance in July 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren called Bezos out as she made another push for a wealth tax. In 2020, during her presidential run, Warren proposed a 2 percent annual tax on net worths of $50 million and a 6-percent annual tax on net worths over $1 billion.
“I want to see us tax wealth, however your wealth is tied up. It shouldn’t make a difference whether you have real estate, or whether you have cash, or whether you have a bazillion shares of Amazon. Yes, Jeff Bezos, I’m looking at you,” Warren said on the CNBC show. “Whatever form you have your assets — diamonds, yachts, paintings — I think there ought to be a tax on that annually.”
She continued, “Jeff Bezos has not paid taxes on the wealth that he has. [He is worth] a bazillion dollars. He has not paid taxes on all of that wealth. In fact, Jeff Bezos, many years, has either paid nothing in taxes or has paid 1 percent.”