Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault, compared: the two richest people in the world are worth a combined US$400 billion – but how did the Amazon and LVMH founders get started, and make their millions?
Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault are the world’s two richest people, with a combined net worth of around US$400 billion.
This is how they made their fortunes.
Jeff Bezos’ first job was at a McDonald’s
The billionaire said in a 2001 interview with Fast Company that his job at a McDonald’s restaurant in Miami was “really hard”.
“They wouldn’t let me anywhere near the customers. This was my acned-teenager stage. They were like, ‘Hmm, why don’t you work in the back?’” Bezos recalled.
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Bezos majored in computer science at Princeton University
A book called The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon states that he joined a telecommunications start-up called Fitel after graduating from Princeton. He then quit Fitel and went to work for Bankers Trust as a product manager, where he focused on selling software to pension-fund clients.
After two years at Bankers Trust, he joined the hedge fund D.E. Shaw and became a senior vice-president after only four years.
He left his hedge fund job in 1994 to start what would become Amazon
Bezos decided books were the best products to start selling online. He then started Amazon.com in a garage in Seattle. Amazon sold books to people in all 50 US states and more than 45 countries in the first month of its launch.
Amazon went public in 1997
In March 1997, Amazon had about 80,000 average daily visits, TechCrunch reported. It had only 256 employees that year. In the years that followed, Amazon extended its product range beyond books to include electronics, tools, toys, CDs and more.
Bezos invested US$250,000 in Google in 1998, before its IPO in 2004. Time magazine then named Bezos as its Person of the Year in 1999 after Amazon rapidly grew.
Bezos had the same annual base salary of US$81,840 for decades while he was CEO, but his annual total compensation for many years exceeded US$1 million, owing to costs related to security and business travel.
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Bezos’ others companies and investments
Bezos founded space tourism company Blue Origin in 2000 and bought The Washington Post for US$250 million in 2013.
Bezos announced he was stepping down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021
After spending 27 years leading the company, Bezos announced he was transitioning to become Amazon’s executive chairman. In 2023, Amazon hit nearly US$575 billion in net sales.
The company has hundreds of fulfilment centres around the world. It sells millions of products, including appliances, clothing, groceries and toiletries, and it also offers cloud computing services.
In February, Amazon had a market cap of US$1.8 trillion.
Now, moving onto Bernard Arnault …
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Arnault started out working for his father’s construction company after university
After studying engineering at the École Polytechnique, Arnault went to work for his father’s construction firm Ferret-Savinel, Bloomberg reported.
Arnault acquired Agache-Willot-Boussac in 1984, which was verging on bankruptcy
The company owned brands like French department store Bon Marché and Christian Dior, The New York Times reported. He renamed the firm Financière Agache and kick-started a turnaround effort, which helped it earn US$1.9 billion in revenue just a few years later, the Times reported.
He went on to become LVMH’s largest shareholder
Champagne company Dom Pérignon was one of the initial brands part of Moët Hennessy, which later merged with Louis Vuitton to create LVMH in 1987.
Arnault spent US$2.6 billion buying up shares to become the company’s largest shareholder and eventually its chairman and CEO by 1989, per The Times.
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His five children also work for LVMH and its brands
In 2011, he acquired the Italian jewellery brand Bulgari when it was struggling, Reuters reported.
LVMH now owns more than 75 brands, its website says.
The luxury goods group made US$93.2 billion in 2023
Arnault said in January, when its earnings were released, “Our performance in 2023 illustrates the exceptional appeal of our maisons and their ability to spark desire despite a year affected by economic and geopolitical challenges.”
It seems like Arnault has no plans to slow down. He told The Financial Times in 2019, “We’re just getting started.”
- Bezos, whose first job was at a McDonald’s in Miami, attended Princeton and then founded Amazon in a garage in 1994 – he briefly dethroned Microsoft’s Bill Gates as world’s richest person in 2017
- Meanwhile, Arnault’s LVMH conglomerate encompasses luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Dom Pérignon and more – and his 5 kids are all involved in the business, too