Who founded Amazon?

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon. He established the company on July 5, 1994, initially as an online bookseller based in Bellevue, Washington.

Bezos had previously worked at the investment firm D. E. Shaw, where he became interested in the rapid growth of the internet. He moved to the Seattle area because it offered access to technology workers, including talent connected to Microsoft and the University of Washington, as well as proximity to book-distribution facilities.

The company was initially named Cadabra, a shortened form of “abracadabra,” but Bezos changed the name to Amazon in November 1994. The new name referred to the Amazon River and suggested scale. Amazon's website opened for public sales on July 16, 1995, beginning with books before expanding into many other product categories.

The company is sometimes described as having started in a garage, but its early operations also involved rented office space and a small team. Bezos is the canonical answer to this quiz question; Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk founded or led other technology companies, not Amazon.