Amazon was the first company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization while still led by its founder, Jeff Bezos.
Amazon crossed the $1 trillion mark in September 2018, when Jeff Bezos was still its chief executive officer. Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 and remained CEO until July 2021, giving him a direct leadership role during the company's extraordinary expansion across retail, cloud computing, advertising, and entertainment.
The founder-led detail helps distinguish this question from the broader record that Amazon was the second U.S. company to reach $1 trillion after Apple. Bezos's ownership and leadership made him closely associated with Amazon's rise, although the market capitalization itself was determined by public share trading rather than by the founder personally.
Market capitalization measures the value investors place on the company's equity. It is not the same as Bezos's personal wealth, Amazon's sales, or the company's total assets. Those measures can change for different reasons and should not be substituted for one another.