Which CEO founded Amazon and served as its CEO until 2021?

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon and served as its CEO until 2021. He incorporated the company in 1994 and initially operated it as an online bookstore before expanding it into a broad technology, retail, logistics, and cloud-computing business.

Amazon began under the name Cadabra, but Bezos soon changed the name to Amazon. The company launched as Amazon.com in 1995, selling books online from the Seattle area. Its growth later extended into products such as marketplace retail, Prime subscriptions, Kindle devices, streaming, and Amazon Web Services.

Bezos remained chief executive for nearly three decades. In February 2021, Amazon announced that he would step down as CEO later that year and become executive chairman. Andy Jassy, who had led AWS, became Amazon's president and CEO in July 2021.

A common mix-up is confusing Amazon's founder with its current CEO. Bezos remained highly influential after leaving the operating role, but he no longer runs Amazon's daily business as chief executive. Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Steve Ballmer founded or led different major technology companies.