Amazon, founded in 1994 as an online bookstore, grew into one of the world’s highest-market-cap businesses.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in Bellevue, Washington, in 1994, and the website began operating in 1995. The company initially sold books online, then expanded into many retail categories and developed major businesses in cloud computing, advertising, logistics, and digital media.
Amazon Web Services became especially important to the company’s valuation. AWS provides computing, storage, databases, and other services to businesses and governments worldwide, giving Amazon a large technology-services operation alongside retail.
Amazon’s market capitalization reflects expectations about future earnings, not just the value of goods in its warehouses. Its stock-market growth also made Bezos one of the most prominent corporate founders of the modern era.