In 1994 Jeff Bezos, a former Wall Street hedge fund executive, incorporated Amazon.com, choosing the name primarily because it began with the first letter of the alphabet and because of its association with the vast South American river.

Jeff Bezos is most famous for starting Amazon, which has grown from a small online bookstore into the world's largest online retailer and a global leader in cloud computing (AWS). Bezos founded the company in July 1994, originally operating out of his garage in Bellevue, Washington, with tables made from $60 doors. After launching the site in 1995, the company expanded rapidly into music, electronics, and groceries, eventually revolutionizing the way consumers shop through innovations like "One-Click" ordering and Amazon Prime. Beyond his retail empire, Bezos also founded Blue Origin in 2000, an aerospace company focused on suborbital and orbital spaceflight with the goal of establishing a permanent human presence in space. In 2013, he expanded his influence into media by purchasing The Washington Post. While he stepped down as Amazon's CEO in 2021 to become Executive Chairman, the companies he founded remain some of the most influential entities in the 2026 global economy, touching everything from satellite internet with Project Kuiper to high-end digital media and artificial intelligence.