Tech icon Jeff Bezos reportedly started Amazon in 1994 on the middle of a cross-country road trip. Since then, that humble company that started as an online bookstore has grown into an e-commerce behemoth — gobbling up competitors and dominating most consumer categories.
Though he stepped down from the CEO spot at Amazon in 2021, there are other companies that Jeff Bezos has also invested his time and resources into. Those could be stocks that his Bezos Expeditions investment firm is buying, as well as firms that his brainchild AMZN has invested in as ways to further expand its empire.
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Many of these are startups or privately held companies, such as the Bezos-funded and space travel startup Blue Origin that has recently been a big focus of the former Amazon CEO’s energy. But there are also publicly traded, investable options if you’re interested in following the tech icon and putting your own money behind the stocks Jeff Bezos is buying.
| Bezos Stock | Forward Price-Earnings Ratio* |
| Airbnb Inc. (ticker: ABNB) | 26.8 |
| Air Transport Services Group Inc. (ATSG) | 16.1 |
| Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) | 36.9 |
| Remitly Global Inc. (RELY) | N/A |
| Rivian Automotive Inc. (RIVN) | N/A |
| Sana Biotechnology Inc. (SANA) | N/A |
| Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) | 53.8 |
| Workday Inc. (WDAY) | 37.7 |
*Yahoo Finance data as of Aug. 29.
Airbnb Inc. (ABNB)
ABNB stock is down markedly from its late 2020 IPO when it opened at about $144 a share. However, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos invested in Airbnb back in 2011 back when the entire company was “only” valued at around $1 billion, and now boasts a market capitalization roughly 75 times that figure. The Airbnb investment was made by the Amazon founder’s venture-capital firm, Bezos Expeditions, and there’s still a large chunk of that initial allocation in its portfolio. Airbnb stock has been soft this summer thanks to weaker bookings in the lucrative North American region, but long-term investors like Bezos may still be interested in the stock thanks to its first-mover power across the short-term home rental market.
Air Transport Services Group Inc. (ATSG)
Air Transport Services is a cargo logistics and airplane leasing company. And the single largest holder of ATSG stock is Amazon, sparked by a partnership that began thanks to the obvious shipping demands that come from operating the largest e-commerce platform in the world. According to the most recent data, AMZN has a roughly 19.4% stake in this company. The partnership with Amazon began in early 2016 with an agreement to operate an air cargo network through the leasing of 20 dedicated Boeing 767 freighter aircraft. In an age when Amazon seems to be gobbling up complementary pieces of the online shopping puzzle, it may be interesting to stake out a position in this company just like Jeff Bezos did thanks to its synergistic potential.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
Amazon itself has to be acknowledged as the ultimate catch-all option to invest like Jeff Bezos via publicly traded stocks. That’s in part because a lot of the companies that Bezos Expeditions has a stake in currently are privately held, but also because some of them have just been sucked up directly into the Amazon mothership. Examples include prominent companies like Whole Foods, but there are also tons of smaller entities involved in everything from AI to robotics to cloud computing. When you’re the size of Amazon, it sometimes makes sense to purchase the whole kit and kaboodle rather than take a small stake. So by investing in Amazon, you’re also holding a stake in a bunch of other firms that are now rolled up into the behemoth that Bezos built.
Remitly Global Inc. (RELY)
First things first: software firm Remitly is down an ugly 45% or so over the last 12 months even as the broader stock market has rallied strongly in the same period, thanks in parts to profitability concerns as it invests heavily in future growth. That said, this small-cap software firm is still worth watching as it builds a disruptive digital financial services operations. Specifically, RELY customers are immigrants and expatriates that require cross-border transactions. It’s a hyper-targeted business, but one that supports a top line of more than $1.2 billion this year — and revenue that’s expected to grow another 25% to $1.5 billion for fiscal year 2025.
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Rivian Automotive Inc. (RIVN)
Dynamic electric-vehicle manufacturer Rivian may surprise you as one of the top stocks that Jeff Bezos is buying. But it’s true, with Amazon counted as one of the largest institutional investors with just over 150 million shares, or about 16% of the entire company. The stock hasn’t been much of a short-term performer, with shares down by more than 30% over the last year. But the long-term potential for Amazon comes via its future EV fleet needs instead of consumer sales trends. That’s what really makes RIVN worth watching as a top Bezos investment.
Sana Biotechnology Inc. (SANA)
Sana is a high-tech health care company engaged with cell engineering platforms for various therapeutic areas. These include treatments for cancer, diabetes, central nervous system disorders, autoimmune diseases, and others. As is often the case for development-stage pharmaceutical companies, Sana is currently unprofitable as it works its product candidates through drug trials. But the Seattle-based firm is just down the street from Amazon’s headquarters, and Jeff Bezos got in on the ground floor with his Bezos Expeditions investment.
Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER)
As with Airbnb, Bezos invested early on in this ride-sharing giant via a piece of Uber’s Series B funding round. The popular ride-hailing app went public in 2019 at $45 per share, valuing the company at more than $80 billion at the time, and currently trades in the $70 range. Bezos Expeditions has been an investor across that entire period, however, based on the continued promise of growth for this ride-hailing leader. Interestingly enough, Amazon itself has started to take on Uber and other competitors with its own free and fast delivery services for Prime members. We’ll have to wait and see whether that early investment was wiser because of the capital appreciation or the competitive intelligence gleaned from the deal.
Workday Inc. (WDAY)
The final Jeff Bezos stock on our list, Workday, was also one of the technology companies that Bezos Expeditions funded along the way to its growth and IPO. Furthermore, as one of the largest cloud computing platforms in the world, there’s a business relationship between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Workday, which itself is one of the leading providers of cloud-based applications for finance and human resources management. Though it went public way back in 2012, the company continues to find growth rates that younger companies would envy, including roughly 15% revenue expansion projected both this fiscal year and in its next fiscal year, too.
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8 Stocks Jeff Bezos Is Buying originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 08/29/24: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
