When Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com Inc. (ticker: AMZN) in 1994, even he probably didn’t imagine the powerhouse it would become: A humble company that began as an online bookstore ultimately grew into a multitrillion-dollar e-commerce behemoth and cloud computing king.
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Bezos formally departed from his CEO role at Amazon in 2021, but his fingerprints remain on the company to this day. The same can be said for the other companies that Bezos invested his time and resources in over the years, either directly or through his Bezos Expeditions investment firm.
Unfortunately, many of the Bezos Expeditions targets are startups or privately held companies offering no easy way for everyday folks to invest directly. That list includes the Bezos-funded space travel startup Blue Origin that has recently been a big focus of the former Amazon CEO’s energy. That said, 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.
Here are 10 stocks to buy that Jeff Bezos is betting on:
— Airbnb Inc. (ABNB)
— Air Transport Services Group Inc. (ATSG)
— Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
— Grail Inc. (GRAL)
— Nextdoor Holdings Inc. (KIND)
— Remitly Global Inc. (RELY)
— Rivian Automotive Inc. (RIVN)
— Sana Biotechnology Inc. (SANA)
— Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER)
— Workday Inc. (WDAY)
Airbnb Inc. (ABNB)
ABNB stock is down markedly over the last few years, declining more than 25% from its 2022 peak even as the S&P 500 has tacked on about 50% in roughly the same period. However, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos invested in Airbnb back in 2011 back when the entire company was “only” valued at around $1 billion; it now boasts a market capitalization about 85 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.com, 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.
Following Bezos’ lead by loading up on ATSG stock would’ve served you well this year, as alternative investment firm Stonepeak announced a deal to acquire the air cargo company on Nov. 4 for $22.50 per share. ATSG stock closed at $22.01 on Nov. 12, up 25% from where it began the year.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
Of course, 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. There’s prominent ones like Whole Foods, but there are also tons of smaller entities involved in everything from artificial intelligence 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.
Grail Inc. (GRAL)
Grail is a biotechnology leader that has a troubled history with parent firm Illumina Inc. (ILMN), a top genomic sequencing company. Namely, Illumina built Grail internally, spun it off in 2016, reacquired it in 2021, then ultimately divested it again earlier this year after a battle with European regulators. Bezos has been along for most of that ride, with Bezos Expeditions still prominently listing a stake in the company. Looking forward, Grail’s work on a blood test to detect early-stage cancer has promise — but like all biotech stocks, it faces a big risk of steep declines if that work doesn’t pay off as expected, or generate the cash that Wall Street demands.
Nextdoor Holdings Inc. (KIND)
A social media app for neighborhoods, Nextdoor went public a few years ago through the fashionable reverse merger deals of the time known as special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. The deal initially valued the firm at more than $4 billion, but the firm now trades at less than a $1 billion valuation, or roughly an 80% dive since becoming public. A big reason was the elimination of some legacy features, local reviewers selectively favoring some groups over others, and widespread reports of bullying and outright racism on the platform. But for better or worse, though, Bezos Expeditions was an early investor in Nextdoor, so it makes the list.
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Remitly Global Inc. (RELY)
Remitly stock has exploded in the last month or so, tacking on about 50% over that time thanks to surging revenue and a favorable outlook for 2025. This small-cap software firm specializes in disruptive digital financial services operations, with a particular focus on cross-border transactions. Remitly operates an admittedly 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 more than $1.5 billion in fiscal 2025. What’s more, a few analysts are projecting RELY stock to finally break into the black next fiscal year, which could be a landmark achievement that sparks another rally in shares if that indeed takes place.
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. Neither Bezos nor company leadership is likely wild about the short-term performance of RIVN stock, with shares down 55% since the end of 2023 through Nov. 12, while the S&P is up 25% in the same time frame. However, the long-term potential for Amazon comes via its future fleet needs — and the long-term investment proposition for investors is the rise of Rivian over many years, not just several months, as it attempts to tap into the EV megatrend.
That comeback got a nice little boost on Nov. 13, when the stock surged following a stepped-up investment from automotive powerhouse Volkswagen.
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 other maladies. As is often the case for development-stage pharmaceutical companies, Sana is currently unprofitable as it works its product candidates through drug trials. In fact, it doesn’t even have a penny of top-line revenue to speak of yet. 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, 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 initial public offering. Furthermore, as one of the largest cloud computing platforms in the world, there’s a business relationship between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Workday as 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 newer startups would envy, including roughly 15% revenue expansion projected both this fiscal year and next.
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10 Stocks Jeff Bezos Is Buying originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 11/13/24: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
