Jeff Bezos's Investment Portfolio: Inside the Companies He Owns and Backs

What does Jeff Bezos own beyond Amazon? The billionaire tech entrepreneur has built a sprawling investment empire worth billions, strategically deploying capital across frontier industries through Bezos Expeditions—his venture capital arm. With a net worth exceeding $180 billion, Bezos controls stakes in 17+ companies spanning healthcare, artificial intelligence, financial services, and emerging technologies. His portfolio reveals a calculated philosophy: backing moonshot ventures that address humanity’s biggest challenges while positioning him at the intersection of future industries.

Strategic AI and Robotics: Betting on Automation’s Future

When AI began reshaping industries, Bezos accelerated his tech-focused investments. In early 2024, Bezos Expeditions joined Nvidia and Microsoft in funding Figure AI, pledging $100 million toward a $675 million raise at a $2.6 billion valuation. The startup is developing humanoid robots for labor-intensive, undesirable jobs—a market Goldman Sachs projects could reach $38 billion by 2035. This investment captures Bezos’s vision: positioning early in markets before they explode.

Perplexity AI represents another AI-era bet. Bezos invested in the company’s Series B round ($73.6 million) and its follow-on funding ($63 million), as the AI-powered search engine’s valuation climbed to $2.5-3 billion. Unlike traditional search, Perplexity uses language models to deliver more conversational, accurate results—a direct challenge to Google’s dominance.

Ride-Sharing and Travel: Early Bets That Paid Off

Bezos’s 2011 investment of $37 million in Uber’s Series B has become one of his most lucrative portfolio positions. When Uber went public in 2019 at $45 per share, the ride-hailing giant was valued at $82.4 billion. Over the following years, the company’s market capitalization expanded to exceed $140 billion, demonstrating Bezos’s knack for identifying transformative platforms before mainstream adoption.

Airbnb followed a similar trajectory. Bezos invested $112 million in the accommodation marketplace, which now operates 5.6 million listings across 220+ countries. The company’s December 2020 IPO valued it at $47 billion, with shares subsequently climbing as the short-term rental market matured. By 2024, Airbnb’s market cap exceeded $71 billion, validating Bezos’s conviction in peer-to-peer economy models.

Healthcare and Biotech: Targeting Disease at the Source

Bezos Expeditions has deployed substantial capital into companies solving healthcare’s most pressing problems. In 2016, the firm invested $100 million in Grail, a diagnostic company focused on early cancer detection. By tackling cancer detection before invasive treatments become necessary, Grail embodied Bezos’s philosophy of preventing problems rather than treating them. Though Grail announced an IPO in 2020, Illumina acquired the company for $8 billion, providing Bezos with a profitable exit.

The immunotherapy space also attracted Bezos capital. Between April and August 2014, Bezos Expeditions invested $56 million and $134 million respectively into Juno Therapeutics. The company developed cutting-edge treatments for various cancers. Celgene later acquired Juno for $9 billion, again demonstrating the lucrative nature of early biotech bets.

Financial Services: Democratizing Access to Capital

Bezos recognized early that fintech was democratizing access to financial tools. In 2015, Bezos Expeditions invested $50 million in Fundbox alongside Spark Capital, supporting the company’s Series C round. Fundbox simplifies access to credit for small business owners through transparent, fast lending. The company’s mission aligned with Bezos’s broader belief that technology should empower underserved populations.

Remitly, a mobile payment platform enabling cross-border transfers to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, also earned Bezos backing through Bezos Expeditions. The company went public, eventually reaching a market capitalization of $2.6+ billion, enabling migrants and international workers to send money home affordably—another example of Bezos targeting underserved communities through financial innovation.

Agricultural Technology: Solving Hunger at Scale

Few billionaires focus on agricultural innovation, but Bezos recognized agtech’s transformative potential. In July 2017, Bezos Expeditions invested $200 million in Plenty during its Series B funding round. The company develops pesticide and GMO-free vertical farming technology that produces crop yields 350 times greater than traditional methods while consuming just 1% of conventional water usage.

Plenty’s partnership with Mawarid—a $680 million joint venture to build indoor farms across the Middle East—illustrates Bezos’s ambition: deploying proven agricultural technology to address regional food security challenges.

Software, Data, and Developer Tools

Beyond consumer platforms, Bezos invested in enterprise infrastructure. Stack Overflow, the world’s largest developer Q&A platform with 23+ million registered users, received early backing through Bezos Expeditions. Though Prosus acquired the company for $1.8 billion in 2021, the investment demonstrated Bezos’s appreciation for communities that drive technological progress.

Domo, a business intelligence platform connecting executives to real-time company data, attracted Bezos’s $60 million investment in 2013. The cloud-based software priced its 2018 IPO at $21 per share. While subsequent performance was mixed, the investment reflected Bezos’s thesis that data-driven decision-making would transform corporate management.

Mark43, which improves public safety software and criminal justice systems, received $27 million from Bezos Expeditions in 2016, followed by participation in a $38 million Series C round. The company’s use of Amazon Web Services infrastructure illustrated Bezos’s ecosystem thinking—his investments often integrate Amazon’s technology stack.

Educational Technology and Emerging Platforms

Education technology held particular appeal for Bezos. In 2017, he invested $190 million in EverFi during its Series D funding. The platform provides financial education, social-emotional learning, and STEM training—addressing skills gaps in an evolving job market. Blackbaud later acquired EverFi for $750 million, providing Bezos with returns on his education-focused thesis.

Basecamp, the project management software that pioneered Ruby on Rails technology, received minority backing from Bezos in 2006. The company never went public but represented early Bezos interest in productivity tools and software-as-a-service models reshaping how teams work.

Nextdoor, the neighborhood social network connecting residents around local safety and community issues, received Bezos Expeditions backing during its 2013 Series B round. The platform later went public through a SPAC merger, eventually reaching a $4.3 billion valuation, demonstrating renewed investor interest in community-focused platforms.

The 3D Printing Pioneer: MakerBot

Recognizing 3D printing’s potential to democratize manufacturing, Bezos participated in a $10 million investment in MakerBot in 2011. The company pioneered consumer-accessible 3D printing, making the technology available to makers and small businesses. Stratasys subsequently acquired MakerBot, recognizing its role in advancing the broader 3D printing ecosystem.

The Bezos Investment Philosophy

What unites these 17+ portfolio companies? Bezos consistently backs founders and teams solving humanity’s biggest problems: cancer detection, world hunger, climate change, financial inclusion, and technological advancement. His investments span moonshot ventures (robotics, AI) to proven models (ride-sharing, e-commerce) to emerging categories (agtech, vertical farming). By deploying capital through Bezos Expeditions rather than purely through Amazon, he maintains optionality—backing diverse bets while building optionality across multiple industries.

For investors studying what Bezos owns and invests in, the pattern is clear: Bezos gravitates toward companies building infrastructure for tomorrow’s economy, addressing massive markets, and benefiting from technological acceleration. His portfolio suggests where entrepreneurial capital will concentrate over the next decade—a valuable signal for those seeking to understand not just what Bezos owns, but where global innovation is heading.