Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore before becoming a global technology business.
Bezos incorporated the company in July 1994, and Amazon began selling books online in 1995. The business later expanded into categories including electronics, clothing, groceries, and digital media.
Amazon’s growth was powered by a broad retail marketplace, logistics infrastructure, subscription services, and Amazon Web Services. AWS became a major cloud-computing business, serving companies, governments, and developers around the world.
Amazon is often included among the world’s most valuable companies by market capitalization. Its history also illustrates why market-cap rankings can change: investors value expected future earnings, not only a company’s current sales or physical assets. Amazon has remained publicly traded since its 1997 stock-market debut.