Amazon, a major market-cap company, was founded by former Wall Street executive Jeff Bezos.
Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 after leaving D. E. Shaw, the New York City investment firm where he had worked as a senior vice president. He initially operated the business from a garage in the Seattle area, and Amazon launched online as a bookseller in 1995. The company later expanded into many retail categories and services.
The original business plan focused on books because an online store could offer a much larger catalog than a typical physical bookstore. Amazon's later growth included marketplace selling, logistics, digital media, devices, and Amazon Web Services, its cloud-computing division.
Bezos is sometimes confused with founders of other major technology companies. Jack Ma founded Alibaba, Michael Dell founded Dell Technologies, and Pierre Omidyar founded eBay. Bezos stepped down as Amazon's chief executive in 2021 but remained associated with the company as its executive chair.