Jeff Bezos attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 10, 2024 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
David Grogan | CNBC
A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for high-net-worth investors and consumers. Sign up To receive future editions delivered directly to your inbox.
Jeff Bezos has made headlines for his high-priced purchases — from a $165 million home in Los Angeles to a $177 million property on Miami’s Indian River to a $500 million yacht.
However, Bezos’ biggest recent acquisition spree may be in the field of artificial intelligence through his family office.
According to exclusive data provided to CNBC by FINTRX, a private wealth intelligence platform, all investments made by the Bezos family office (called Bezos Expeditions) this year have been in the field of artificial intelligence. Although the amount of Bezos Expeditions’ investment was not disclosed, the total amount of financing it participated in exceeded $1 billion.
January, Amazon The founder and executive chairman invested in the US$73.6 million Series B financing of Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence search engine company. He also made a $63 million follow-on financing investment in April. The value of Bezos’ Expeditions investment in January could double by April as the company said its valuation soared to between $2.5 billion and $3 billion.
In February this year, Bezos Expeditions invested in Figure AI, a humanoid robot company that is also important Nvidia and Microsoft As an investor. The total amount of venture capital investment in this round is US$675 million.
In July, he invested in Skild AI’s $300 million Series A round, which focuses on building artificial intelligence systems for machines and robotic devices.
Bezos’ expedition has always been heavily skewed toward technology. According to FINTRX, 70% of his family office’s investments are in technology. The second largest category is consumer goods, accounting for 16%, followed by financial services and manufacturing, both at 13%. But now, his main focus appears to be artificial intelligence.
In a January podcast interview, Bezos said artificial intelligence tools are “not inventions, they are discoveries” and will have a profound impact on technology and change. “These powerful tools are more likely to help us and save us than they are to unbalance us, harm us, and destroy us,” he said.
Bezos has many partners in the family office. According to the UBS Global Family Office Report, artificial intelligence is currently the favorite investment category for family offices. More than three-quarters (or 78%) of family offices surveyed plan to invest in artificial intelligence in the next two to three years – the most investment of any category.
Amazon has also been investing heavily in artificial intelligence. The company plans to invest more than $100 billion in data centers over the next decade and invested $4 billion in artificial intelligence security and research company Anthropic.
Bezos recently submitted a stock sale plan to sell $5 billion worth of Amazon stock this year, following the sale of $8 billion worth of Amazon stock earlier this year. With more than $13 billion in cash, Bezos will now have even more money to bet on the artificial intelligence boom.
