title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio has said his career choice as a child was to become a marine biologist or an actor but he eventually favored the latter, as he liked impersonating characters and imitating people, and seeing people's reaction to his acting. His interest in performing began at the age of two, when he went onto the stage at a performance festival and danced spontaneously, receiving a positive response from the crowd. He was also motivated to learn acting by his stepbrother's appearance in a television commercial, for which Farrar earned $50,000. DiCaprio has said in interviews that his first television appearance was in the children's series "Romper Room", and that he was dismissed from the show for being disruptive. However, the show's host has denied that any children were removed from the show in this way. He began appearing in several commercials when he was fourteen for Matchbox cars by Mattel, which he cites as his first role. He later appeared in commercials for Kraft Singles, Bubble Yum, and Apple Jacks. In 1989, he played the role of Glen in two episodes of the television show "The New Lassie".


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: At the beginning of his career, DiCaprio had difficulty finding an agent. When he found one, he suggested DiCaprio change his name to Lenny Williams to appeal to American audiences, which he declined to do. DiCaprio remained jobless for a year and a half, even after 100 auditions. Following this lack of success, DiCaprio made a decision to give up on his acting career but his father persuaded him to persevere with it. Motivated by his father and the need to financially support his mother, he continued to audition; after a talent agent, who knew his mother's friend, recommended him to casting directors, DiCaprio secured roles in about 20commercials. DiCaprio was represented by popular headshot photographer and manager Bob Villard during this time. By the early1990s, he began acting regularly on television, starting with a role in the pilot of "The Outsiders" (1990) and one episode of the soap opera "Santa Barbara" (1990), in which he played the young Mason Capwell. DiCaprio's career prospects improved when he was cast in "Parenthood", a series based on the 1989 comedy film of the same name. To prepare for the role of Garry Buckman, a troubled teenager, he analyzed Joaquin Phoenix's performance in the original film. His work that year earned him two nominations at the 12th Youth in Film Awards—Best Young Actor in a Daytime Series for "Santa Barbara" and Best Young Actor Starring in a New Television Series for "Parenthood". Around this time, he was a contestant on the children's game show "Fun House", on which he performed several stunts, including catching the fish inside a small pool using only his teeth.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio made his film debut later that year as the stepson of an unscrupulous landlord in the low-budget horror "Critters 3" (1991), a role he later described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair". DiCaprio has stated that he prefers not to remember "Critters 3", describing it as "possibly one of the worst films of all time", and citing it as the kind of role he wanted to ignore in the future. Later in 1991, he became a recurring cast member of the sitcom "Growing Pains", playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by a family. Co-star Joanna Kerns recalls DiCaprio being "especially intelligent and disarming for his age" but she said that he was also mischievous and jocular on set and often made fun of his co-stars. DiCaprio was cast by the producers to appeal to young female audiences but his arrival did not improve the show's ratings and he left before the end of its run, attributing his departure to bad writing. He was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Television Series. Also that year, DiCaprio played an un-credited role in one episode of "Roseanne".


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 1992, DiCaprio played a brief role in the first installment of the "Poison Ivy" film series, and later in the year Robert De Niro handpicked DiCaprio from a shortlist of 400 young actors to co-star with him in "This Boy's Life." The film is a biopic on the relationship between the rebellious teenager Tobias "Toby" Wolff (DiCaprio) and his mother (Ellen Barkin) and abusive stepfather (De Niro). Its director Michael Caton-Jones later said that DiCaprio did not know how to behave on set, leading Caton-Jones to apply a strict mentoring style, after which DiCaprio's behavior began to improve. Bilge Ebiri of "Rolling Stone" found that the powerful bond between Barkin and DiCaprio elevated the film, praising DiCaprio's portrayal of the character's complex growth from a rebellious teenager to an independent young man.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio played the intellectually disabled brother of Johnny Depp's character in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993), a comic-tragic odyssey of a dysfunctional Iowa family. According to director Lasse Hallström, Caton-Jones recommended DiCaprio to him, but he was initially skeptical, as he considered DiCaprio too good-looking for the part. Hallström cast DiCaprio after he emerged as "the most observant" auditionee. The film became a critical success. At 19, DiCaprio earned a National Board of Review Award, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making him the seventh-youngest Oscar nominee in the category. "The film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio", wrote "The New York Times" critic Janet Maslin, "who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end." Caryn James, also writing for "The New York Times", said of his performances in "This Boy's Life" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape": "He made the raw, emotional neediness of those boys completely natural and powerful."


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio's first effort of 1995 was in Sam Raimi's western film "The Quick and the Dead", but Sony Pictures was dubious over DiCaprio's casting, and as a result, co-star Sharon Stone paid his salary herself. The film was released to a dismal box office performance and mixed reviews from critics. DiCaprio's next film in 1995 was "The Basketball Diaries", a biopic, in which he played a teenage Jim Carroll as a drug-addicted high school basketball player and writer. DiCaprio next starred alongside David Thewlis in Agnieszka Holland's erotic drama "Total Eclipse", a fictionalized account of the homosexual relationship between Arthur Rimbaud (DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (Thewlis). He replaced River Phoenix, who died before filming began. Although the film failed commercially, it has been included in the catalogue of Warner Archive Collection, a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio starred opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's film "Romeo + Juliet" (1996), an abridged modernization of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy of the same name, which retained the original Shakespearean dialogue. The project grossed $147 million worldwide, and earned DiCaprio a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival. Reviewing his early works, David Thomson of "The Guardian" called DiCaprio "a revelation" in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", "very moving" in "This Boy's Life", "suitably desperate" in "The Basketball Diaries" and "a vital spark" in "Romeo + Juliet". Later in 1996, DiCaprio starred in "Marvin's Room", a family drama about two estranged sisters, played by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, who are reunited through tragedy. DiCaprio portrayed Hank—the troubled son of Streep's character—who has been committed to a mental asylum. Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" praised "the deeply gifted DiCaprio" for holding his own against the experienced actresses Keaton and Streep, describing the three as "full-bodied and so powerfully affecting that you're carried along on the pleasure of being in the presence of their extraordinary talent".


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio rejected a role in the film "Boogie Nights" (1997) to star opposite Kate Winslet in James Cameron's "Titanic" (1997) as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard RMS "Titanic" during its ill-fated maiden voyage. DiCaprio initially had doubts about it, but was eventually encouraged to pursue the part by Cameron. With a production budget of more than $200 million, the film was the most expensive at the time and was shot at Rosarito, Baja California where a replica of the ship was created. "Titanic" became the highest-grossing film at the time, eventually earning more than $2.1 billion in box-office receipts worldwide. The role of Jack Dawson transformed DiCaprio into a superstar, resulting in intense adoration among teenage girls and young women in general that became known as "Leo-mania", comparable to Beatlemania in the 1960s. The film won 11 Academy Awards—the most for any film—including Best Picture, but DiCaprio's failure to gain a nomination led to a protest against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) by more than 200fans. He was nominated for other high-profile awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio stated in 2000: "I have no connection with me during that whole "Titanic" phenomenon and what my face became around the world [...] I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to. It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either." In 2015, Ebiri called the role DiCaprio's best, writing that he and Winslet "infuse their earnest back-and-forth with so much genuine emotion that it's hard not to get swept up in their doomed love affair". A journalist for "Vanity Fair" similarly labeled them in 2008 "Hollywood's most iconic screen couple" since Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Reviewing the film in 2017, Alissa Wilkinson of "Vox" took note of DiCaprio's "boyish charm" and found him "natural and unaffected" in his performance. After the success of "Titanic", DiCaprio reduced his workload "to learn to hear [his] own voice in choosing the roles" that he wanted to pursue.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio played a role in a brief appearance in Woody Allen's caustic satire of the fame industry, "Celebrity" (1998), whom Ebiri labeled "the best thing in the film". That year, he also starred in the dual roles of the villainous King Louis XIV and his secret, sympathetic twin brother Philippe in Randall Wallace's "The Man in the Iron Mask", based on the namesake 1939 film. The film received mixed to negative response, but grossed $180 million against its budget of $35 million. "Entertainment Weekly" critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that DiCaprio did not look old enough to play the part, but praised him as "a fluid and instinctive actor, with the face of a mischievous angel". "The Guardian" Alex von Tunzelmann was similarly impressed with his performance but found his talent wasted in the film. Nevertheless, DiCaprio was awarded a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for both incarnations the following year.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 1998, DiCaprio was cast in "American Psycho" (2000) for a reported salary of $20 million. After disagreements with Oliver Stone on the film's direction, DiCaprio left the project, taking the lead role in "The Beach" instead. The latter, an adaption of Alex Garland's 1996 novel of the same name, saw him play an American backpacking tourist looking for the perfect way of life in a secret island commune in the Gulf of Thailand. Budgeted at $50 million, the film earned about three times more at the box office, but was negatively reviewed by critics, and earned him a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor. Todd McCarthy of "Variety" thought DiCaprio gave a compelling performance but his character lacked the uniqueness to make him dimensional. In the mid-1990s, DiCaprio appeared in the mostly improvised black-and-white short film "Don's Plum" as a favor to aspiring director R. D. Robb. When Robb expanded it to a full-length feature, DiCaprio and co-star Tobey Maguire had its release blocked in the US and Canada by court order, arguing they never intended to make it a theatrical release. The film premiered at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio turned down the role of Anakin Skywalker in "" (2002). His first film that year was the biopic "Catch Me If You Can", based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who before his 19th birthday committed check fraud to make millions in the 1960s. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film was shot across 147 different locations in 52 days, making it "the most adventurous, super-charged movie-making" DiCaprio had experienced yet. The film received critical acclaim and with a worldwide gross of $351 million against a budget of $52 million, it became his second highest-grossing release after "Titanic". Roger Ebert praised his departure from dark and troubled characters, while two "Entertainment Weekly" critics in 2018 called it DiCaprio's best role, labeling him "delightfully persuasive, deceptive, flirtatious, and sometimes tragic—and we dare you to find a better role, if you can". DiCaprio received his third Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the film.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: Also in 2002, DiCaprio starred in Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York", a historical drama set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. Scorsese initially struggled selling his idea of realizing the film until DiCaprio became interested in playing protagonist Amsterdam Vallon, a young leader of an Irish-American street gang, and thus Miramax Films got involved with financing the project. Nonetheless, production on the film was plagued by overshooting of budgets and producer-director disagreements, resulting in an eight-month shoot. With a budget of $103 million, the film was the most expensive Scorsese had ever made. "Gangs of New York" earned $193 million worldwide and received positive critical response. Anne Thompson of "The Observer" took note of DiCaprio's "low-key, sturdy performance", but felt that co-star Daniel Day-Lewis overshadowed him.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 2004, DiCaprio founded the production company Appian Way Productions, a namesake of the Italian road. He was interested in finding "out of the box" material from an actor's perspective and developing it in a way it stayed true to its original source. He said, "A lot of times, I'd gone through the process of getting a great book or finding a great story, and then too many people get their hands on it and it turns into something entirely different. It is very difficult to reverse that process." DiCaprio's first producing task was in "The Assassination of Richard Nixon", starring Sean Penn as Samuel Byck, which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. DiCaprio and Scorsese reunited for a biopic of Howard Hughes, an American film director and aviation pioneer suffering from obsessive–compulsive disorder, in "The Aviator" (2004), which DiCaprio also co-produced under Appian Way. DiCaprio initially developed the project with Michael Mann, who decided against directing it after working on biopics "The Insider" (1999) and "Ali" (2001). DiCaprio eventually pitched John Logan's script to Scorsese, who quickly signed on to direct. "The Aviator" became a critical and financial success, grossing $213million against its budget of $110million. Simond Braund of "Empire" praised DiCaprio for convincingly playing a complex role, highlighting the scenes depicting Hughes' paranoia and obsession. He received his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor — Motion Picture Drama and nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 2006, DiCaprio starred in the crime film "The Departed" and the political war thriller "Blood Diamond". In Scorsese's "The Departed", DiCaprio played the role of Billy Costigan, a state trooper working undercover in the Irish Mob in Boston, someone he characterizes as in a "constant, 24-hour panic attack". This reunited DiCaprio with prior colleagues, Mark Wahlberg after "The Basketball Diaries", and "Catch Me If You Can" co-star Martin Sheen. DiCaprio especially liked the experience of working with co-star Jack Nicholson, describing a scene with him as "one of the most memorable moments" of his life as an actor. In preparation, DiCaprio visited Boston to interact with people associated with the Irish Mob and gained of muscle. Critically acclaimed, the film grossed $291 million against a budget of $90 million, becoming DiCaprio and Scorsese's highest-grossing collaboration to that point. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" praised DiCaprio's and co-star Matt Damon's performances, but felt that Nicholson overshadowed the two. Despite DiCaprio's leading role in "The Departed", the film's distributor Warner Bros. Pictures submitted his performance for a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the AMPAS to avoid internal conflict with his part in "Blood Diamond". Instead, his co-star Mark Wahlberg was nominated, though DiCaprio earned other accolades for "The Departed", including a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor and nominations for Best Actor at the Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In "Blood Diamond", DiCaprio starred as a diamond smuggler from Rhodesia who is involved in the Sierra Leone Civil War. While filming, he worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and said he was touched by his interactions with them. To prepare, he spent six months in Africa, learned about camouflage from people in South African military and interviewed and recorded people in the country to improve his accent. The film received generally favorable reviews, and DiCaprio was noted for his South African accent, which is generally known as difficult to imitate. Claudia Puig of the "USA Today" approvingly highlighted DiCaprio's transition from a boy to a man on screen, and Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" similarly noted his growth as an actor since "The Departed". DiCaprio received nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for "Blood Diamond".


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 2007, DiCaprio produced the comedy drama "Gardener of Eden", which according to "The Hollywood Reporter"s Frank Scheck "lack[ed] the necessary dramatic urgency or black humor to connect with audiences". Later that year, he produced, co-wrote and narrated "The 11th Hour", a documentary on the state of the natural environment that won the Earthwatch Environmental Film Award in 2008. DiCaprio was also a creator and an executive producer for Planet Green's "Greensburg" (2008–2010), which ran for three seasons. Set in Greensburg, Kansas, it is about rebuilding the town in a sustainable way after being hit by the May 2007 EF5 tornado. Also in 2008, DiCaprio starred in "Body of Lies", a spy film based on the novel of the same name. He played one of three agents battling a terrorist organization in the Middle East. DiCaprio dyed his hair brown and wore brown contacts for his role in the film, which he considered a throwback to political films of the 1970s like "The Parallax View" (1974) and "Three Days of the Condor" (1975). The film received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed $118 million against a budget of $67.5 million.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: Later in 2008, DiCaprio collaborated with Kate Winslet for the drama "Revolutionary Road", directed by her then-husband Sam Mendes. As both actors had been reluctant to make romantic films similar to "Titanic", it was Winslet who suggested that they both work with her on a film adaptation of the 1961 eponymous novel by Richard Yates. As she had read the script by Justin Haythe, she found that the plot had little in common with the 1997 blockbuster. Playing a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet spent some time together in preparation, and DiCaprio felt claustrophobic on the small set they used. He saw his character as "unheroic", "slightly cowardly" and someone "willing to be just a product of his environment". Peter Travers was impressed with DiCaprio's pairing with Winslet and with his multi-layered portrayal of an overwhelmed character, while Marshall Sella of "GQ" called it the "most mature and memorable performance of his lifetime". DiCaprio earned his seventh Golden Globes nomination for the film. "Revolutionary Road" grossed $75.9million against its budget of $35million. He ended the 2000s by producing director Jaume Collet-Serra's psychological horror thriller film "Orphan" (2009), starring Vera Farmiga (his co-star in "The Departed"), Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman. Although the film received mixed reviews, it was a commercial success.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio continued to collaborate with Scorsese in the 2010 psychological thriller film "Shutter Island", based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. He played Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a U.S. Marshal investigating a psychiatric facility located on an island, who comes to question his own sanity. DiCaprio and Scorsese became interested in the project in 2007, and the former co-produced the film under Appian Way with Phoenix Pictures. Because of the film's disturbing scenes, DiCaprio had nightmares of mass murder during production and considered relaxing with his friends therapy. The film was released to mixed reviews; Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" praised Scorsese's direction and the acting but criticized its twist ending. Peter Travers called it DiCaprio's "most haunting and emotionally complex performance yet", and particularly liked his cave scene with co-star Patricia Clarkson. The film was a commercial success, grossing $294 million worldwide against a budget of $80 million.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio's second role in 2010 was in Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed ensemble science-fiction film "Inception". Inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming and dream incubation, the film features Dom Cobb (DiCaprio), an "extractor" who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Cobb is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind. DiCaprio was "intrigued by this concept—this dream-heist notion and how this character's gonna unlock his dreamworld and ultimately affect his real life". Made on a budget of $160 million, the film grossed $836 million worldwide to become DiCaprio's second highest-grossing film. To star in this film, DiCaprio agreed to a pay cut from his $20 million fee, in favor of splitting first-dollar gross points, meaning he received a percentage of cinema ticket sales. The risk proved fruitful, as DiCaprio earned $50 million from the film, becoming his highest payday yet.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: After playing demanding roles in "Shutter Island" and "Inception", DiCaprio took a small break from acting to have some time for himself, returning the following November in Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" (2011). A biopic about J. Edgar Hoover, the film focuses on the career of the FBI director from the Palmer Raids onward, including an examination of his private life as an alleged closeted homosexual. Critics felt that the film lacked coherence overall but commended DiCaprio's performance. Roger Ebert praised DiCaprio's "fully realized, subtle and persuasive performance, hinting at more than Hoover ever revealed, perhaps even to himself". Also in 2011, he produced Catherine Hardwicke's romantic horror film "Red Riding Hood", very loosely based on the folk tale "Little Red Riding Hood". Though the film was criticized for its clichéd script and named one of the ten worst films of 2011 by "Time" magazine, it had moderate box-office returns. Also that year, DiCaprio's Appian Way produced George Clooney's political drama "The Ides of March", an adaptation of Beau Willimon's 2008 play "Farragut North".


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 2012, DiCaprio starred as plantation owner Calvin Candie in Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti Western, "Django Unchained". After reading the script, DiCaprio was uncomfortable with the extent of racism portrayed in the film, but his co-stars and Tarantino convinced him not to sugarcoat it. While filming, DiCaprio accidentally cut his hand on glass, but continued filming, and Tarantino elected to use the take in the final product. The film received critical acclaim; a writer for "Wired" magazine commended him for playing a villainous role and his "blood-chilling" performance. The film earned DiCaprio a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. "Django Unchained" grossed $425 million worldwide on a production budget of $100 million.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In January 2013, DiCaprio said he would take a long break from acting to "fly around the world doing good for the environment". That year, he had four releases as an actor and a producer. His first was in the role of millionaire Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby", an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name, co-starring Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire. DiCaprio liked the idea of playing a man who realizes his imaginations, someone he characterizes as "a hopeless romantic, a completely obsessed wacko or a dangerous gangster, clinging to wealth". The film received mixed reviews from critics, but DiCaprio's performance was praised, and earned him an AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Critic Rafer Guzman of "Newsday" wrote that DiCaprio was not only "tough [...] but also vulnerable, touching, funny, a faker, a human. It's a tremendous, hard-won performance." Matt Zoller Seitz of Roger Ebert's website described his performance as "the movie's greatest and simplest special effect," and "iconic—maybe his career best". The film grossed $353 million worldwide, more than three times its budget. Three films were produced by DiCaprio under Appian Way in 2013—the ensemble crime thriller "Runner Runner", which "The Guardian"s Xan Brooks described as "a lazy, trashy film that barely goes through the motions"; the commercially failed thriller "Out of the Furnace"; and the black comedy-drama "The Wolf of Wall Street".


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio reunited with Scorsese for the fifth time in "The Wolf of the Wall Street", a film based on the life of stockbroker Jordan Belfort (played by DiCaprio), who was arrested in the late 1990s for securities fraud and money laundering. DiCaprio wanted to play Belfort ever since he had read his autobiography and won a bidding war with Warner Bros. against Brad Pitt and Paramount Pictures for the rights to Belfort's memoir in 2007. He was fond of Belfort's honest and unapologetic portrayal of his actual experiences in the book, and was inspired by the financial crisis of 2007–2008 to make the film. "The Wolf of Wall Street" received highly positive reviews for Scorsese's direction and DiCaprio's comedic performance. "The Hollywood Reporter" Todd McCarthy lauded DiCaprio for fully realizing his character's potential with a carefree performance. The film earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and nominations for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, as well as Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Picture.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio was an executive producer on "Virunga", a 2014 British documentary film about four people fighting to protect the world's last mountain gorillas from war and poaching. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April2014, and DiCaprio was nominated for the 2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. "" was another documentary film that year for which he was an executive producer—he took part in the new cut released exclusively on Netflix that September. It explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 2015, DiCaprio produced and played fur trapper Hugh Glass in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's survival drama "The Revenant". DiCaprio found his role in the film difficult; he had to eat a raw slab of bison's liver and sleep in animal carcasses. He also learned to shoot a musket, build a fire, speak two Native American languages (Pawnee and Arikara) and apply ancient healing techniques. Built on a budget of $135 million, the film earned $533 million worldwide. The film received positive reviews with particular praise for DiCaprio's acting. Mark Kermode of "The Guardian" wrote that DiCaprio shone with a performance that prioritizes physicality over speech, and Nick De Semlyen of "Empire" noted that he uplifted the film. The film earned him numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critic's Choice Award for Best Actor. For the next three years, DiCaprio narrated documentaries and served as a producer for films. In 2016, he was an executive producer for "The Ivory Game" and "Catching the Sun"; and produced, hosted, and narrated the documentary "Before the Flood" about climate change. He produced the crime drama "Live by Night" (2016), which received unenthusiastic reviews and failed to recoup its $65 million production budget. His next production ventures were in 2018—the psychological horror "Delirium" and the commercially failed action–adventure "Robin Hood".


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: After producing and narrating the 2019 global warming documentary "Ice on Fire", DiCaprio returned to acting following a four-year break in Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", which traces the relationship between Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), an aging television actor and his stuntman, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). To help the film's financing, DiCaprio and Pitt agreed to take a pay cut, and they each received $10 million. DiCaprio liked working with Pitt, and Tarantino described the pair as the most exciting since Robert Redford and Paul Newman. DiCaprio was fascinated with the film's homage to Hollywood and focus on the friendship between his and Pitt's characters. He drew from real-life experience of witnessing the struggles and rejections of his actor friends in the industry. The film premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where critics praised his and Pitt's performances. A writer for "Business Insider" called it one of the best performances of DiCaprio's career, and Ian Sandwell of Digital Spy particularly liked the duo's chemistry, which he said helps bring authenticity to their characters' connection. DiCaprio received nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. The film earned $374 million against a budget of $90 million.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 2020, DiCaprio served as an executive producer for "The Right Stuff", a television series adaption of the 1973 namesake book. After being in development at National Geographic, it was released on Disney+. That May, DiCaprio briefly featured in the finale of the miniseries "The Last Dance". In 2021, DiCaprio appeared in Adam McKay's satirical comedy "Don't Look Up". He spent five months changing the film's script with McKay before agreeing to the part. Starring alongside Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers attempting to warn humanity about an extinction-level comet, DiCaprio saw this film as an analogy of the world's indifference to the climate crisis. As a frequent supporter of environmentalism, DiCaprio said he has often looked to star in and make films tackling issues related to it, something he found hard due to people's inability to listen. He praised McKay for envisioning a project on how humans would react to a serious issue from a political, social and scientific standpoint. While reviews for the film were mixed, most critics praised DiCaprio's and Lawrence's performances; journalists from Digital Spy and NDTV lauded their pairing as energetic and delightful. DiCaprio earned nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for the film. It broke the record for the most views (152 million hours) in a single week in Netflix history.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio will star in Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" based on the book of the same name by David Grann, for which he was paid $30 million.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: Early in his career, DiCaprio gained a reputation for his reckless behavior and intense partying with a group of male celebrities dubbed "the Pussy Posse" in the 1990s. During an unknown activity, he got himself and friend Justin Herwick almost killed when his parachute failed to open, after which his instructor released an emergency core. In response, DiCaprio said he is fond of doing things that scare him. In an infamous article published by "New York Magazine" in 1998, journalist Nancy Jo Sales criticized DiCaprio as someone whose pursuit was to "chase girls, pick fights and not tip the waitress". John McCain, who was a United States Senator for Arizona, called him "an androgynous wimp". DiCaprio found people's perception of him exaggerated, adding, "They want you miserable, just like them. They don't want heroes; what they want is to see you fall." Following the early media scrutiny, "The New York Times" Caryn James credited DiCaprio for being one of the few actors to use his stardom to further social causes but he "rarely lets the public beyond the glittering veil of the photo op". Carole Cadwalladr of "The Guardian" said DiCaprio is "polite, charming, makes jokes, engages eye contact. And manages [...] to give almost no hint whatsoever of his actual personality."


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio is regarded as one of the finest actors of his generation. The international stardom he achieved with "Titanic" (1997) intensified his image as a teen idol and romantic lead, from which he sought to dissociate himself. He has since admitted feeling nervous to star in big-budget studio films because of their hype and marketing campaigns. As an actor, he views film as a "relevant art form, like a painting or sculpture. A hundred years from now, people will still be watching that movie." He often plays roles based on real-life people and stories told in specific periods. According to Caryn James, DiCaprio is unafraid of working with established directors on unconventional projects; taking such risks has led him to star in failed films like "The Beach" (2000), but several successful collaborations with Martin Scorsese. DiCaprio has described his relationship with the director as dreamlike and admires his knowledge of film, crediting Scorsese for having taught him its history and importance. Scorsese has commented on DiCaprio's ability to repeatedly demonstrate emotion on screen. Jesse Hassenger of "The A.V. Club" considers the duo's collaborations—which earned them the 2013 National Board of Review (Spotlight Award)—to be career-defining moments for both of them, and as vital as Scorsese's acclaimed collaborations with Robert De Niro.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: Agnieszka Holland, who directed DiCaprio in "Total Eclipse" (1995), describes him as "one of the most mature actors I've ever worked with", and admires his "courageous" choice of roles. She remarked that he does not apply method acting, but is "doing some trick [...] Look at him on screen and, for the moment of the shot, he really becomes the character." Film critic Philip French, writing for "The Observer", has identified a theme of characters in the process of becoming a man. He wrote that DiCaprio's inclination toward films about dysfunctional families and characters seeking a father figure allude to his own troubled childhood. DiCaprio often plays characters who themselves are playing roles, which Caryn James says looks simple on screen but is a rather sophisticated acting. He tends to play antiheroes and characters who lose their mental stability as the narrative progresses. Derek Thompson of "The Atlantic" wrote that DiCaprio was "brilliant" and gave his "most impressive performances" when playing "anti-heroes: frauds and cheats and double-crossing liars and mercenaries". DiCaprio is particularly known for his ability to heavily commit to each role he plays; Colin Covert of "The Seattle Times" noted how this quality sets him apart from most of his contemporaries and "redefines film stardom".


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: Several media publications, such as "People", "Empire", and "Harper's Bazaar", have included DiCaprio in their listings of the most attractive actors. In 1998, he sued "Playgirl" magazine over plans to publish a fully nude picture of him. He has said he does not believe in focusing on appearanceas this is only temporary and can negatively affect one's profession in the industryand looks for career longevity instead. In 2005, DiCaprio was made a commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture for his contributions to the arts. In 2016, he was named one of the 100most influential people in the world by "Time" magazine. He was included on "Forbes" annual list of the world's highest-paid actors in 2008 and from 2010 to 2016 with respective earnings of $45 million, $28 million, $77 million, $37 million, $39 million, $29 million and $27 million, topping the list in 2011. The magazine has commended DiCaprio's ability to star in risky, R-rated films that become box office successes. "The Hollywood Reporter" listed him as one of the 100 most powerful people in entertainment from 2016 to 2019. A writer for the same magazine credits DiCaprio for being the rare actor to have a successful career "without ever having made a comic book movie, family film or pre-branded franchise. Leo is the franchise." Stacey Wilson Hunt, analyzing his career in "New York Magazine" in 2016, noted DiCaprio, unlike most of his contemporaries, had not starred in a failed film in the previous ten years. Of his success, DiCaprio says, "My attitude is the same as when I started. I feel very connected to that fifteen-year-old kid who got his first movie."


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio has named Robert De Niro and James Dean as two of his favorite and most influential actors, stating "There were a lot of great actors I really fell in love with, but if I were to pick two, from different generations, it would be De Niro and James Dean". When asked about a performance that stayed with him the most, DiCaprio responded, "I remember being incredibly moved by Jimmy Dean, in "East of Eden". There was something so raw and powerful about that performance. His vulnerability [...] his confusion about his entire history, his identity, his desperation to be loved. That performance just broke my heart."


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio is identified as one of the most active celebrities in the climate change movement. He was eager to learn about ecology from an early age, watching documentaries on rainforest depletion and the loss of species and habitats. He has said that the environment is more important to him than spirituality, and that he is agnostic. He established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. Although concerned with all areas of the environment, it focuses on global warming, preserving Earth's biodiversity and supporting renewable energy. It has worked on projects in over 40 countries and has produced two short web documentaries, "Water Planet" and "Global Warning." The foundation has also funded debt-for-nature swaps. DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups, and accolades, including the Martin Litton Environment Award in 2001 from Environment Now and the Environmental Leadership Award in 2003 from Global Green USA. He has been an active supporter of numerous environmental organizations and sat on the board of the World Wildlife Fund, Global Green USA, and International Fund for Animal Welfare.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio has owned environment-friendly electric-hybrid vehicles and his home is powered by solar panels. However, his use of private jets and large yachts has prompted accusations of hypocrisy due to their large carbon footprints. DiCaprio states that global warming is the world's "number-one environmental challenge". He chaired the national Earth Day celebration in 2000, where he interviewed Bill Clinton and they discussed plans to deal with global warming and the environment. DiCaprio presented at the 2007 American leg of Live Earth.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In November 2010, DiCaprio donated $1 million to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia's Tiger Summit. DiCaprio's persistence in reaching the event after encountering two plane delays caused then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a ""muzhik"" or "real man". In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to free Tony, a tiger who had spent the last decade at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tête, Louisiana. Two years later, he organized a benefit "11th Hour" fine art auction, which raised nearly $40 million for his foundation. He told the attendees, "Bid as if the fate of the planet depended on us." It became the world's highest-grossing environmental charity event ever held.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: On September 16, 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated DiCaprio as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on climate change, on September 21 he participated in the March for Climate Change in New York City, and on September 23 he made an opening statement to members of the UN Climate Summit. In 2015, he announced his intention to divest from fossil fuels. He again spoke at the UN in April 2016 prior to the signing of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: At a 2016 meeting with Pope Francis, DiCaprio gave a charity donation and spoke about environmental issues with him. A few days later, possibly influenced by this meeting, the Pope said he would act in a charity film. DiCaprio traveled to Indonesia in early 2016 where he criticized the government's palm oil industry's slash-and-burn forest clearing methods. In July 2016, his foundation awarded $15.6 million to help protect wildlife and the rights of Native Americans, along with combating climate change. That October, DiCaprio joined Mark Ruffalo in support of the Standing Rock tribe's opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In April 2017, he protested against President Donald Trump's inaction on climate change by attending the People's Climate March. In July, a charity auction and celebrity concert put on by DiCaprio's foundation had raised over $30 million in its opening days. The DiCaprio foundation donated $100 million in December 2018 to fight climate change. In May 2021, DiCaprio announced a $43 million pledge to enact conservation operations across the Galápagos Islands, with the announcement marked by his social media accounts being taken over by a wildlife veterinarian and island restoration specialist, Paula A Castaño.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: During the 2004 presidential election, DiCaprio campaigned and donated to John Kerry's presidential bid. He gave $2,300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the 2008 election, the maximum contribution an individual could give in that election cycle, and $5,000 to Obama's 2012 campaign. DiCaprio endorsed Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential election. In March 2020, DiCaprio attended a fundraiser for Joe Biden at the home of Paramount Pictures executive Sherry Lansing.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: Prior to the 2020 election, DiCaprio narrated a Netflix documentary series about voting rights, stating, "All of us may have been created equal. But we'll never actually be equal until we all vote. So don't wait." On social media, DiCaprio urged voters to make a plan to cast their ballots and to draw attention to voter suppression and restrictive voter ID laws, citing VoteRiders as a source of information and assistance.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at the library in Los Feliz, the site of his childhood home. It was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and opened in early 1999. In May 2009, DiCaprio joined Kate Winslet, his costar from "Titanic" and "Revolutionary Road", director James Cameron and Canadian singer Celine Dion, in a campaign to raise money to financially support the fees of the nursing home where Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the RMS "Titanic", was residing. DiCaprio personally donated $20,000 to support Dean. In 2010, he donated $1 million to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake. DiCaprio donated $61,000 to the gay rights group GLAAD in 2013.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 2016, DiCaprio took part in an annual fundraising gala event of Children of Armenia Fund, as a special guest of his close friend and gala's honorary chair Tony Shafrazi. DiCaprio contributed $65,000 to the cause. After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, DiCaprio provided $1 million to the United Way Harvey Recovery Fund through his foundation. In 2020, DiCaprio's foundation donated $3 million to Australia bushfire relief efforts. Amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the media announced DiCaprio donated $10million to support Ukraine, although the news agency Associated Press suggested this amount was inaccurate.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio's personal life is the subject of widespread media attention. He rarely grants interviews and is reticent about his private life, but he has been the focus of several references detailing his involvement with women aged 25 or younger. In 1999, DiCaprio met Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, whom he dated until 2005. He was romantically involved with Israeli model Bar Refaeli from 2005 to 2011, during which time he met with Israeli president Shimon Peres and visited Refaeli's hometown of Hod HaSharon. He later dated German fashion model Toni Garrn from July 2013 until December 2014, and later in 2017. DiCaprio was in a relationship with American model and actress Camila Morrone from 2017 until 2022. He has been criticized by some for the age gaps in his relationships.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio owns a home in Los Angeles and an apartment in Battery Park City. In 2009, he bought an island, Blackadore Caye, off mainland Belize—on which he is set to open an environment-friendly resort—and in 2014, he purchased the original Dinah Shore residence designed by mid-century modern architect Donald Wexler in Palm Springs, California.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 2005, DiCaprio's face was severely injured when model Aretha Wilson hit him over the head with a broken bottle at a Hollywood party. As a result, he required seventeen stitches to his face and neck. Wilson pleaded guilty to the assault and was sentenced in 2010 to two years in prison.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: In 2017, when "The Wolf of Wall Street" producer Red Granite Pictures was involved in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, DiCaprio turned over the gifts he received from business associates at the production company, including fugitive businessman Jho Low, to the US government. These included the Best Actor Oscar trophy that Marlon Brando won for his role in 1954's "On the Waterfront", a $3.2 million Pablo Picasso painting, and a $9 million Jean-Michel Basquiat collage.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: According to the online portal Box Office Mojo and the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, DiCaprio's most critically and commercially successful films include "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993), "Romeo + Juliet" (1996), "Titanic" (1997), "Catch Me If You Can" (2002), "Gangs of New York" (2002), "The Aviator" (2004), "The Departed" (2006), "Blood Diamond" (2006), "Shutter Island" (2010), "Inception" (2010), "Django Unchained" (2012), "The Great Gatsby" (2013), "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013), "The Revenant" (2015) and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019). His films have grossed $7.2 billion worldwide.


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:


title: Leonardo DiCaprio

text: DiCaprio has won three Golden Globe Awards: Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for "The Aviator" and "The Revenant" and Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for "The Wolf of Wall Street", as well as a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for "The Revenant".


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ; "né" Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon. With a net worth of US$114.5 billion as of November 2022, Bezos is the fourth-wealthiest person in the world and was the wealthiest from 2017 to 2021 according to both Bloomberg's "Billionaires Index" and "Forbes".


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Born in Albuquerque and raised in Houston and Miami, Bezos graduated from Princeton University in 1986. He holds a degree in electrical engineering and computer science. He worked on Wall Street in a variety of related fields from 1986 to early 1994. Bezos founded Amazon in late 1994 on a road trip from New York City to Seattle. The company began as an online bookstore and has since expanded to a variety of other e-commerce products and services, including video and audio streaming, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. It is the world's largest online sales company, the largest Internet company by revenue, and the largest provider of virtual assistants and cloud infrastructure services through its Amazon Web Services branch.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos founded the aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company Blue Origin in 2000. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle reached space in 2015 and afterwards successfully landed back on Earth. He also purchased the major American newspaper "The Washington Post" in 2013 for $250 million and manages many other investments through his venture capital firm, Bezos Expeditions. In September 2021, Bezos co-founded biotechnology company Altos Labs with Mail.ru founder Yuri Milner.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: The first centibillionaire on the "Forbes" wealth index, Bezos was named the "richest man in modern history" after his net worth increased to $150 billion in July 2018. In August 2020, according to "Forbes", he had a net worth exceeding $200 billion. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, his wealth grew by approximately $24 billion. On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as the CEO and President of Amazon and transferred to the role of executive chairman; Andy Jassy, the chief of Amazon's cloud computing division, replaced Bezos as the CEO and President of Amazon. On July 20, 2021, he flew to space alongside his half-brother, Mark. The suborbital flight lasted over 10 minutes, reaching a peak altitude of . In September 2022, he was ranked second on the "Forbes" 400 list of wealthiest Americans with a net worth of $151 billion.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964, the son of Jacklyn (née Gise) and Theodore Jørgensen. At the time of Jeff's birth, his mother was a 17-year-old high school student and his father was 19 years old. Jørgensen was a Danish American and was born in Chicago to a family of Baptists. After completing high school despite challenging conditions, Jacklyn attended night school while bringing Jeff along as a baby. Jeff attended a Montessori school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when he was two years old. After his parents divorced, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos in April 1968. Shortly after the wedding, Mike adopted four-year-old Jeff whose surname was then legally changed from Jorgensen to Bezos.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: After Mike had received his degree from the University of New Mexico, the family moved to Houston, Texas, so that he could begin working as an engineer for Exxon. Jeff attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade. Jeff's maternal grandfather was Lawrence Preston Gise, a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Albuquerque. Lawrence retired early to his family's ranch near Cotulla, Texas, where Jeff would spend many summers in his youth. Jeff would later purchase this ranch and expand it from to . Jeff displayed scientific interests and technological proficiency and once rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. The family moved to Miami, Florida where Jeff attended Miami Palmetto High School. While Jeff was in high school, he worked at McDonald's as a short-order line cook during the breakfast shift.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos attended the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida. He was high school valedictorian, a National Merit Scholar, and a Silver Knight Award winner in 1982. In his graduation speech, Bezos told the audience he dreamed of the day when mankind would colonize space. A local newspaper quoted his intention "to get all people off the earth and see it turned into a huge national park". In 1986, he graduated "summa cum laude" from Princeton University with a 4.2 GPA and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (B.S.E.) in electrical engineering and computer science; he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. While at Princeton, Bezos was a member of the Quadrangle Club, one of Princeton's 11 eating clubs. In addition, he was elected to Tau Beta Pi and was the president of the Princeton chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS).


title: Jeff Bezos

text: After Bezos graduated from college in 1986, he was offered jobs at Intel, Bell Labs, and Andersen Consulting, among others. He first worked at Fitel, a fintech telecommunications start-up, where he was tasked with building a network for international trade. Bezos was promoted to head of development and director of customer service thereafter. He transitioned into the banking industry when he became a product manager at Bankers Trust from 1988 to 1990. He then joined D. E. Shaw & Co, a newly created hedge fund with a strong emphasis on mathematical modelling in 1990 until 1994. Bezos became D. E. Shaw's fourth senior vice-president by age 30.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In late 1993, Bezos read that the Internet was growing at a rate of 2300% a year and decided to establish an online bookstore. He and his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, left their jobs at D. E. Shaw and founded Amazon in a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington on July 5, 1994 after writing its business plan on a cross-country drive from New York City to Seattle. With Bezos at the helm and Scott taking an integral role in its operation—writing checks, keeping track of the books, and negotiating the company's first freight contracts—the foundation was laid for this garage-run operation to grow exponentially. Prior to settling on Seattle, Bezos had investigated setting up his company at an Indian reservation near San Francisco in order to avoid paying taxes. Bezos initially named his new company "Cadabra" but later changed the name to "Amazon" after the Amazon River in South America, in part because the name begins with the letter "A", which is at the beginning of the alphabet. At the time, website listings were alphabetized, so a name starting with "A" would appear sooner when customers conducted online searches. In addition, he regarded "Amazon," the name of the world's largest river as fitting for what he hoped would become the world's largest online bookstore. He accepted an estimated $300,000 from his parents as investment in Amazon. He warned many early investors that there was a 70% chance that Amazon would fail or go bankrupt. Although Amazon was originally an online bookstore, Bezos had always planned to expand to other products. Three years after Bezos founded Amazon, he took it public with an initial public offering (IPO). In response to critical reports from "Fortune" and "Barron's", Bezos maintained that the growth of the Internet would overtake competition from larger book retailers such as Borders and Barnes & Noble.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In 1998, Bezos diversified into the online sale of music and video, and by the end of the year he had expanded the company's products to include a variety of other consumer goods. Bezos used the $54 million raised during the company's 1997 equity offering to finance aggressive acquisition of smaller competitors. In 2000, Bezos borrowed $2 billion from banks, as its cash balances dipped to only $350 million. In 2002, Bezos led Amazon to launch Amazon Web Services, which compiled data from weather channels and website traffic. In late 2002, rapid spending from Amazon caused it financial distress when revenues stagnated. After the company nearly went bankrupt, he closed distribution centers and laid off 14% of the Amazon workforce. In 2003, Amazon rebounded from financial instability and turned a profit of $400 million. In November 2007, Bezos launched the Amazon Kindle. According to a 2008 "Time" profile, Bezos wished to create a device that allowed a "flow state" in reading similar to the experience of video games. In 2013, Bezos secured a $600-million contract with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on behalf of Amazon Web Services. In October of that year, Amazon was recognized as the largest online shopping retailer in the world.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In May 2016, Bezos sold slightly more than one million shares of his holdings in the company for $671 million, the largest sum he had ever raised from selling some of his Amazon stock. On August 4, 2016, Bezos sold another million of his shares for $756.7 million. A year later, Bezos took on 130,000 new employees when he ramped up hiring at company distribution centers. By January 19, 2018, his Amazon stock holdings had appreciated to slightly over $109 billion; months later he began to sell stock to raise cash for other enterprises, in particular, Blue Origin. On January 29, 2018, he was featured in Amazon's Super Bowl commercial. On February 1, 2018, Amazon reported its highest ever profit with quarterly earnings of $2 billion. Due to the growth of Alibaba in China, Bezos has often expressed interest in expanding Amazon into India. On July 27, 2017, Bezos momentarily became the world's wealthiest person over Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates when his estimated net worth increased to just over $90 billion. His wealth surpassed $100 billion for the first time on November 24, 2017, and he was formally designated the wealthiest person in the world by "Forbes" on March 6, 2018, with a net worth of $112 billion.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In March 2018, Bezos dispatched Amit Agarwal, Amazon's global senior vice president, to India with $5.5 billion to localize operations throughout the company's supply chain routes. Later in the month, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Amazon and Bezos, specifically of sales tax avoidance, misusing postal routes, and anti-competitive business practices. Amazon's share price fell by 9% in response to the President's negative comments; this reduced Bezos's personal wealth by $10.7 billion. Weeks later, Bezos recouped his losses when academic reports out of Stanford University indicated that Trump could do little to regulate Amazon in any meaningful way. During July 2018, a number of members of the U.S. Congress called on Bezos to detail the applications of Amazon's face recognition software, Rekognition.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Criticism of Amazon's business practices continued in September 2018 when Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act and accused Amazon of receiving corporate welfare. This followed revelations by the non-profit group New Food Economy which found that one third of Amazon workers in Arizona, and one tenth of Amazon workers in Pennsylvania and Ohio, relied on food stamps. While preparing to introduce the bill, Sanders opined: "Instead of attempting to explore Mars or go to the moon, how about Jeff Bezos pays his workers a living wage?" He later said: "Bezos could play a profound role. If he said today, nobody who is employed at Amazon will receive less than a living wage, it would send a message to every corporation in America." Sanders's efforts elicited a response from Amazon which pointed to the 130,000 jobs it created in 2017 and called the $28,446 figure for its median salary "misleading" as it included part-time workers. However, Sanders countered that the companies targeted by his proposal have placed an increased focus on part-time workers to escape benefit obligations. On October 2, 2018, Bezos announced a company-wide wage increase, which Sanders applauded. The American workers who were being paid the minimum wage had this increased to $15 per hour, a decision that was interpreted as support for the Fight for $15 movement.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In February 2021, Bezos announced that in the third quarter of 2021 he would step down from his role as CEO of Amazon to become the Executive Chairman of the Amazon Board. He will be replaced as CEO by Andy Jassy. On February 2, 2021, Bezos sent an email to all Amazon employees, telling them the transition would give him "the time and energy [he] need[s] to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and [his] other passions."


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In September 2000, Bezos founded Blue Origin, a human spaceflight startup. Bezos has long expressed an interest in space travel and the development of human life in the Solar System. His 1982 high school valedictorian senior graduation speech was followed up with a "Miami Herald" interview in which he expressed an interest to build and develop hotels, amusement parks, and colonies for human beings who were in orbit. The 18-year-old Bezos stated that he wanted to preserve Earth from overuse through resource depletion. Rob Meyerson led Blue Origin from 2003 to 2017 and served as its first president.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: After its founding, Blue Origin maintained a low profile until 2006 when it purchased a large tract of land in West Texas for a launch and test facility. After the company gained the public's attention during the late 2000s, Bezos additionally indicated his interest in reducing the cost of space travel for humans while also increasing the safety of extraterrestrial travel. In September 2011, one of the company's unmanned prototype vehicles crashed during a short-hop test flight. Although the crash was viewed as a setback, news outlets noted how far the company went from its founding-to-date in advancing spaceflight. After the crash, Bezos has been superstitiously wearing his "lucky" Texas Cowboy boots to all rocket launches. In May 2013, Bezos met with Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Galactic, to discuss commercial spaceflight opportunities and strategies. He has been compared to Branson and Elon Musk as all three are billionaires who prioritize spaceflight among their business interests.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In 2015, Bezos announced that a new orbital launch vehicle was under development and would make its first flight in the late-2010s. Later in November, Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle successfully rocketed into space and reached its planned test altitude of 329,839 feet (100.5 kilometers) before executing a vertical landing back at the launch site in West Texas. In 2016, Bezos allowed select journalists to visit, tour, and photograph his facility. He has repeatedly called for increased inter-space energy and industrial manufacturing to decrease the negative costs associated with business-related pollution.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In December 2017, New Shepard successfully flew and landed dummy passengers, amending and pushing its human space travel start date into late 2018. To execute this program, Blue Origin built six of the vehicles to support all phases of testing and operations: no-passenger test flights, flights with test passengers, and commercial-passenger weekly operations. Since 2016, Bezos has spoken more freely about his hopes to colonize the solar system, and has been selling US$1 billion in Amazon stock each year to capitalize Blue Origin in an effort to support this endeavor. In May 2018, Bezos maintained that the primary goal of Blue Origin is to preserve the natural resources of Earth by making the human species multi-planetary. He announced that "New Shepard" would begin transporting humans into sub-orbital space by November 2018. In July 2018, it was announced that Bezos had priced commercial spaceflight tickets from $200,000 to $300,000 per person.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: On July 20, 2021, he launched on the NS-16 mission with his half-brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen. He launched nine days after Richard Branson launched onboard The Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: On August 5, 2013, Bezos announced his purchase of "The Washington Post" for $250 million in cash, at the suggestion of his friend, Don Graham. To execute the sale, he established limited liability company Nash Holdings to serve as a holding company through which he would own the newspaper. The sale closed on October 1, 2013, and Nash Holdings took control. In March 2014, Bezos made his first significant change at "The Washington Post" and lifted the online paywall for subscribers of a number of U.S. local newspapers in Texas, Hawaii, and Minnesota. In January 2016, Bezos set out to reinvent the newspaper as a media and technology company by reconstructing its digital media, mobile platforms, and analytics software. After a surge in online readership in 2016, the paper was profitable for the first time since Bezos made the purchase in 2013.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos makes personal investments through his venture capital vehicle, Bezos Expeditions. He was one of the first shareholders in Google, when he invested $250,000 in 1998. That $250,000 investment resulted in 3.3 million shares of Google stock, worth about $3.1 billion in 2017. He also invested in Unity Biotechnology, a life-extension research firm hoping to slow or stop the process of aging. Bezos is involved in the healthcare sector, which includes investments in Unity Biotechnology, GRAIL, Juno Therapeutics, and Zocdoc. In January 2018, an announcement was made concerning Bezos's role within a new, unnamed healthcare company. This venture, later named Haven, is expected to be a partnership between Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos also supports philanthropic efforts through direct donations and non-profit projects funded by Bezos Expeditions. Bezos used Bezos Expeditions to fund several philanthropic projects, including an Innovation center at the Seattle Museum of History and Industry and the Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics at Princeton Neuroscience Institute. In 2013, Bezos Expeditions funded the recovery of two Saturn V first-stage Rocketdyne F-1 engines from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. They were positively identified as belonging to the Apollo 11 mission's S-1C stage from July 1969. The engines are currently on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In September 2021, Bezos co-founded Altos Labs with Mail.ru founder Yuri Milner. Altos Labs is a generously funded biotechnology company dedicated to harnessing cellular reprogramming to develop longevity therapeutics. The company has recruited prominent scientists such as Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte (known for work on rejuvenation through reprogramming), Steve Horvath (known for work in epigenetic aging clocks), and Shinya Yamanaka (the Nobel Prize-winning inventor of cellular reprogramming in mammalian cells).


title: Jeff Bezos

text: The company left stealth mode and launched on January 19, 2022, with a start capital of $3 billion and an executive team led by Hal Barron.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Journalist Nellie Bowles of "The New York Times" has described the public persona and personality of Bezos as that of "a brilliant but mysterious and coldblooded corporate titan". During the 1990s, Bezos earned a reputation for relentlessly pushing Amazon forward, often at the expense of public charity and social welfare. Journalist Mark O'Connell criticized Bezos' relentless customer focus as "very small" in terms of impact on humanity as a whole, a sentiment technologist Tim O'Reilly agreed with. His business practices projected a public image of prudence and parsimony with his own wealth and that of Amazon. Bezos was a multi-billionaire who drove a 1996 Honda Accord. Throughout the early 2000s, he was perceived to be geeky or nerdy.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos was seen by some as needlessly quantitative and data-driven. This perception was detailed by Alan Deutschman, who described him as "talking in lists" and "[enumerating] the criteria, in order of importance, for every decision he has made." Select accounts of his persona have drawn controversy and public attention. Notably, journalist Brad Stone wrote a book that described Bezos as a demanding boss as well as hyper-competitive, and opined that Bezos perhaps "bet the biggest on the Internet" than anyone else. Bezos has been characterized as a notoriously opportunistic CEO who operates with little concern for obstacles and externalities.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: During the early 2010s, Bezos solidified his reputation for aggressive business practices, and his public image began to shift. Bezos started to wear tailored clothing; he weight trained, pursued a regimented diet and began to freely spend his money. His physical transformation has been compared to the transformation of Amazon; he is often referred to as the metonym of the company. His physical appearance increased the public's perception of him as a symbolically dominant figure in business and in popular culture, wherein he has been parodied as an enterprising supervillain. Since 2017, he has been portrayed by Kyle Mooney and Steve Carell on "Saturday Night Live", usually as an undercutting, domineering figure. In May 2014, the International Trade Union Confederation named Bezos the "World's Worst Boss", with its general secretary Sharan Burrow saying: "Jeff Bezos represents the inhumanity of employers who are promoting the North American corporate model", while in 2019, Harvard Business Review, which ranked Bezos the best-performing CEO for 4 years in a row since 2014, did not rank him even in the top 100 citing Amazon's "relatively low ESG (environment, social, and governance) scores" that reflect "risks created by working conditions and employment policies, data security, and antitrust issues."


title: Jeff Bezos

text: During the late 2010s, Bezos reversed his reputation for being reluctant to spend money on non-business-related expenses. His relative lack of philanthropy compared to other billionaires has drawn a negative response from the public since 2016. Bezos has been known to publicly contest claims made in critical articles, as exemplified in 2015 when he sent a memo to employees denouncing a "New York Times" piece.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos used what he called a "regret-minimization framework" while he worked at D. E. Shaw and again during the early years of Amazon. He described this life philosophy by stating: "When I'm 80, am I going to regret leaving Wall Street? No. Will I regret missing the beginning of the Internet? Yes." During the 1990s and early 2000s at Amazon, he was characterized as trying to quantify all aspects of running the company, often listing employees on spreadsheets and basing executive decisions on data. To push Amazon forward, Bezos developed the mantra "Get Big Fast", establishing the company's need to scale its operations to produce market dominance. He favored diverting Amazon profits back into the company in lieu of allocating it amongst shareholders in the form of dividends.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos uses the term "work–life harmony" instead of the more standard "work–life balance" because he believes that "balance" implies that you can only have one and not the other. He believes that work and home life are interconnected, informing and calibrating each other. Journalist Walt Mossberg dubbed the idea that someone who cannot tolerate criticism or critique shouldn't do anything new or interesting "". Bezos does not schedule early morning meetings and enforces a two-pizza rule—a preference that meetings are small enough for two pizzas to feed everyone in the board room. When interviewing candidates for jobs at Amazon he has stated he considers three inquiries: can he admire the person, can the person raise the common standard, and under what circumstances could the person become exemplary.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: He meets with Amazon investors for a total of only six hours a year. Instead of using presentation slides, Bezos requires high-level employees to present information with six-page narratives. Starting in 1998, Bezos publishes an annual letter for Amazon shareholders wherein he frequently refers to five principles: focus on customers not competitors, take risks for market leadership, facilitate staff morale, build a company culture, and empower people. Bezos maintains the email address jeff@amazon.com as an outlet for customers to reach out to him and the company. Although he does not respond to the emails, he forwards some of them with a question mark in the subject line to executives who attempt to address the issues. Bezos has cited Jeff Immelt (of New Enterprise Associates), Warren Buffett (of Berkshire Hathaway), Jamie Dimon (of JPMorgan Chase), and Bob Iger (of Walt Disney) as major influences on his leadership style.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos first became a millionaire in 1997 after raising $54 million through Amazon's initial public offering (IPO). He was first included on the "Forbes" "World's Billionaires" list in 1999 with a registered net worth of $10.1 billion. His net worth decreased to $6.1 billion a year later, a 40.5% drop. His wealth plummeted even more the following year, dropping 66.6% to $2.0 billion. He lost $500 million the following year, which brought his net worth down to $1.5 billion. The following year, his net worth increased by 66.66% to $2.5 billion. From 2005 to 2007, he quadrupled his net worth to $8.7 billion. After the financial crisis and succeeding economic recession, his net worth would decrease to $6.8 billion—a 17.7% drop. His wealth rose by 85.2% in 2010, leaving him with $12.6 billion. This percentage increase ascended him to the 43rd spot on the ranking from 68th.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: After a rumor broke out that Amazon was developing a smartphone, Bezos's net worth rose to $30.5 billion in 2014. A year later, Bezos entered the top ten when he increased his net worth to a total of $50.3 billion. Bezos rose to be the 5th richest person in the world hours before market close; he gained $7 billion in one hour. By the time the "Forbes" list was calculated in March 2016, his net worth was registered at $45.2 billion. However, just months later in October 2016, his wealth increased by $16.2 billion to $66.5 billion, unofficially ranking him the third richest person in the world behind Warren Buffett. After sporadic jumps in Amazon's share price, in July 2017 he briefly unseated Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates as the wealthiest person in the world.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos would continue to sporadically surpass Gates throughout the month of October 2017 after Amazon's share price fluctuated. His net worth surpassed $100 billion for the first time on November 24, 2017, after Amazon's share price increased by more than 2.5%. When the 2017 list was issued, Bezos's net worth was registered at $72.8 billion, adding $27.6 billion from the previous year. Bezos was officially ranked as the third wealthiest person in the world up from the 5th spot in 2016. His wealth's rapid growth from 2016 to 2017 sparked a variety of assessments about how much money Bezos earned on a controlled, reduced time scale. On October 10, 2017, he made an estimated $6.24 billion in 5 minutes, slightly less than the annual gross domestic product of Kyrgyzstan.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: On March 6, 2018, Bezos was designated the wealthiest person in the world with a registered net worth of $112 billion. He unseated Bill Gates ($90 billion) who was $6 billion ahead of Warren Buffett ($84 billion), ranked third. He is considered the first registered centi-billionaire (not adjusted for inflation).


title: Jeff Bezos

text: His wealth, in 2017–18 terms, equaled that of 2.7 million Americans. Bezos's net worth increased by $33.6 billion from January 2017 to January 2018. This increase outstripped the economic development (in GDP terms) of more than 96 countries around the world. During March 9, Bezos earned $230,000 every 60 seconds. "The Motley Fool" estimated that if Bezos had not sold any of his shares from its original public offering in 1997, his net worth would sit at $181 billion in 2018. According to "Quartz", his net worth of $150 billion in July 2018 was enough to purchase the entire stock markets of Nigeria, Hungary, Egypt, Luxembourg, and Iran. Following the report by "Quartz", Amazon workers in Poland, (Germany), and Spain participated in demonstrations and labor strikes to draw attention to his growing wealth and the lack of compensation, labor rights, and satisfactory working conditions of select Amazon workers. On July 17, 2018, he was designated the "wealthiest person in modern history" by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, "Fortune", "MarketWatch", "The Wall Street Journal", and "Forbes".


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In 2019, Bezos's wealth was reduced by his divorce from his wife MacKenzie Bezos. According to "Forbes", had the Washington state common law applied to their divorce without a prenuptial agreement, Bezos's wealth could have been equitably divided with his ex-wife; however, she eventually received 25% of Bezos's Amazon shares, valued at approximately $36 billion, making her the third richest woman in the world. Bezos retained his interest in "The Washington Post" and Blue Origin, as well as voting control of the shares received by his ex-wife.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In June 2019, Bezos purchased three adjoining apartments overlooking Madison Square Park in Manhattan, including a penthouse, for a combined total of US$80 million, making this one of the most expensive real estate purchases within New York City in 2019. Bezos had also purchased three adjoining apartments at 25 Central Park West in Manhattan for $7.65 million in 1999; he bought a fourth unit in that building for $5.3 million in 2012.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In February 2020, Bezos purchased the Warner Estate from David Geffen for $165 million, a record price paid for a residence in the Los Angeles area. The previous record high price of $150 million was paid by Lachlan Murdoch for the Chartwell Mansion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported that Bezos's fortune had grown by $24 billion, citing a surge in demand from households on lockdown shopping on Amazon. He further expanded his residential holdings in February 2022, purchasing a $16.13 million dollar apartment at a 24-story boutique condominium, located across from Madison Square Park in the Flatiron neighbourhood, where he already owns all the units on the top floors.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos is the owner of the "Y721", a luxury superyacht estimated to cost more than $500,000,000. Once built, it will be the largest yacht in the world.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos is known for creating an adversarial environment at Amazon, as well as insulting and verbally abusing his employees. As journalist Brad Stone revealed in his book "The Everything Store", Bezos issued remarks to his employees such as "I'm sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?", "Are you lazy or just incompetent?", and "Why are you ruining my life?". Additionally, Bezos reportedly pitted Amazon teams against each other, and once declined to give Amazon employees city bus passes in order to discourage them from leaving the office.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Throughout his early years of ownership of The Washington Post, Bezos was accused of having a potential conflict of interest with the paper. Bezos and the newspaper's editorial board have dismissed accusations that he unfairly controlled the paper's content and Bezos maintains the paper's independence. Bezos treatment of employees at the Washington Post has also drawn scrutiny. In 2013, more than 400 Washington post employees wrote an open letter to Bezos criticizing his poor wages and benefits for his employees. The letter demanded "Fair wages; fair benefits for retirement, family leave and health care; and a fair amount of job security”.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In January 2019, Bezos and his wife Mackenzie Scott released a joint statement which revealed that they would be getting divorced after 25 years together. Subsequently National Enquirer revealed that Bezos had an affair with media personality Lauren Sánchez, the affair with Sanchez had lasted for months. Later Bezos published an online essay on February 7, 2019, in which he accused American Media, Inc. owner David Pecker of "extortion and blackmail" for threatening to publish intimate photos of Bezos and current girlfriend Lauren Sánchez if he did not stop his investigation into how his text messages and other photos had been leaked to the "National Enquirer". Media reports have accused Sanchez brother Michael of being the source for the photos obtained by National Enquirer, however Bezos has speculated that it may have been the Saudi Arabian government.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In 1992, Bezos was working for D. E. Shaw in Manhattan when he met novelist MacKenzie Tuttle, who was a research associate at the firm; the couple married a year later. In 1994, they moved across the country to Seattle, Washington, where Bezos founded Amazon. Bezos and his now ex-wife MacKenzie are the parents of four children: three sons, and one daughter adopted from China. Bezos and MacKenzie have not disclosed their religious status. Public records, family history, and biographical details suggest that both were raised under some form of Christianity.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In March 2003, Bezos was a passenger in a helicopter that crashed in West Texas while surveying land to buy for Blue Origin; the other 3 occupants in the helicopter were pilot Charles "Cheater" Bella, Amazon lawyer Elizabeth Korrell, and local rancher Ty Holland. All survived; Bezos sustained only minor injuries and was discharged from a local hospital the same day.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos portrayed a Starfleet official in the 2016 movie "Star Trek Beyond", and joined the cast and crew at a San Diego Comic-Con screening. He had lobbied Paramount for the role apropos of Alexa and his personal/professional interest in speech recognition. His one line consisted of a response to an alien in distress: "Speak Normally." In his initial discussion of the project which became Alexa with his technical advisor Greg Hart in 2011, Bezos told him that the goal was to create "the "Star Trek" computer." Bezos's family corporation Zefram LLC is named after Zefram Cochrane, a character from "Star Trek".


title: Jeff Bezos

text: On January 9, 2019, Bezos and MacKenzie announced on Twitter their intent to divorce after a "long period" of separation. On April 4, 2019, the divorce was finalized, with Bezos keeping 75% of the couple's Amazon stock and MacKenzie getting the remaining 25% ($35.6 billion) in Amazon stock. However, Bezos would keep all of the couple's voting rights.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: According to public campaign finance records, Bezos supported the electoral campaigns of Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, two Democratic U.S. senators from Washington. He has also supported Democrats U.S. representative John Conyers, as well as Patrick Leahy and Republican Spencer Abraham, U.S. senators serving on committees dealing with Internet-related issues. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos have supported the legalization of same-sex marriage, and in 2012 contributed $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage, a group supporting a yes vote on Washington Referendum 74, which affirmed a same-sex marriage law enacted in the state. Bezos donated $100,000 towards a movement against a Washington state income tax in 2010 for "top earners". In 2012, he donated to Amazon's political action committee (PAC), which has given $56,000 and $74,500 to Democrats and Republicans, respectively.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: After the 2016 presidential election, Bezos was invited to join Donald Trump's Defense Innovation Advisory Board, an advisory council to improve the technology used by the Defense Department. Trump has repeatedly attacked Bezos via Twitter, accused Bezos of avoiding corporate taxes, gaining undue political influence, and undermining his presidency by spreading "fake news".


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In 2014, Amazon won a bid for a cloud computing contract with the CIA valued at $600 million. A 2018, $10 billion contract known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project, this time with the Pentagon, was allegedly written up in a way that favors Amazon. Controversy over this was raised when General James Mattis accepted a headquarters tour invitation from Bezos and co-ordinated the deal through Sally Donnelly, a lobbyist who previously worked for Amazon. In November 2019, when the contract was awarded to Microsoft instead, Amazon filed a lawsuit with allegations that the bidding process was biased. On July 6, 2021, the Pentagon cancelled the JEDI contract with Microsoft, citing that "due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances, the JEDI Cloud contract no longer meets its needs." Despite Bezos's support for an open borders policy towards immigrants, Amazon has actively marketed facial recognition software to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In 2019, a political action committee linked to Bezos spent over $1 million in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat the reelection bid of Seattle city council member and activist Kshama Sawant.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: On November 22, 2021, Jeff Bezos donated $100 million to the Obama Foundation to "help expand the scope of programming that reaches emerging leaders", and requested the Obama Presidential Center's plaza to be named after John Lewis.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In March 2018, Bezos met in Seattle with Mohammad bin Salman, the crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, to discuss investment opportunities for Saudi Vision 2030. In March 2019, Bezos's security consultant accused the Saudi government of hacking Bezos's phone. According to BBC, Bezos's top security staffer, Gavin de Becker, "linked the hack to the "Washington Post"s coverage of the murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul". Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and dissident was employed as a writer at the "Washington Post", owned by Bezos. Khashoggi was killed in late 2018, in Turkey's Saudi consulate for his critical stance and journalism against the Saudi government and its leader.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In January 2020, "The Guardian" reported that the hack was initiated before the murder but after Khashoggi wrote critically about the crown prince in the "Washington Post". Forensic analysis of Bezos's mobile phone conducted by advisory firm FTI Consulting, concluded it "highly probable" that the hack was achieved using a malicious file hidden in a video sent in a WhatsApp message to Bezos from the personal account of the crown prince on May 1, 2018. Saudi Arabia has denied the claim.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos donated to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center several times between 2009 and 2017. In 2013, he pledged $500,000 to Worldreader, a non-profit founded by a former Amazon employee.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In September 2018, "Business Insider" reported that Bezos was the only one of the top five billionaires in the world who had not signed the Giving Pledge, an initiative created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that encourages wealthy people to give away a majority of their wealth. That same month, Janet Camarena, director of transparency initiatives at Foundation Center, was quoted by CNBC as having questions about Bezos's new , including the fund's structure and how exactly it will be funded.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In May 2017, Bezos gave $1 million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which provides pro bono legal services for American journalists. On June 15, 2017, he posted a message on Twitter asking for ideas for philanthropy: "I'm thinking about a philanthropy strategy that is the opposite of how I mostly spend my time—working on the long term". At the time of the post, Bezos's lifetime spending on charitable causes was estimated to be $100 million. Multiple opinion columnists responded by asking Bezos to pay higher wages to Amazon warehouse workers. A year later in June, he tweeted that he would announce two philanthropic foci by the end of summer 2018. Bezos announced in September 2018 that he would commit approximately $2 billion to a fund to deal with American homelessness and establish a network of non-profit preschools for low income communities. As part of this announcement, he committed to establishing the "Day 1 Families Fund" to finance "night shelters and day care centers for homeless families" and the "Day 1 Academies Fund" for early childhood education.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In January 2018, Bezos made a $33 million donation to TheDream.US, a college scholarship fund for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors. In June 2018, Bezos donated to Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a private philanthropic fund founded by Bill Gates aimed at promoting emissions-free energy. In September 2018, Bezos donated $10 million to With Honor, a nonpartisan organization that works to increase the number of veterans in political office.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In February 2020, Bezos pledged $10 billion to combat climate change through the Bezos Earth Fund. Later that year, in November, Bezos announced $791M of donations to established, well-known groups, with $100M each going to Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute and World Wildlife Fund, and the remainder going to 11 other groups. In April 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Bezos donated $100 million to food banks through Feeding America. In November 2021, Bezos pledged to donate $2 billion towards restructuring food systems and nature conservation at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: Bezos Academy is a group of tuition-free preschools for students from low-income families, which was created by Bezos, and which operate in a manner similar to the Montessori method.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: In November 2022 Bezos granted a $100-million Courage and Civility Award to singer Dolly Parton in recognition of her charity work focused on improving children's literacy around the world.


title: Jeff Bezos

text: On November 22, 2022, Jeff Bezos awarded $123 million to organizations that are engaged in relocating homeless families to permanent housing. Day 1 Families Fund grants, the amounts of which vary in monetary terms, will be sent to 40 organizations across the country.


title: Meta Platforms

text: Meta Platforms, Inc., doing business as Meta and formerly named Facebook, Inc., and TheFacebook, Inc., is an American multinational technology conglomerate based in Menlo Park, California. The company owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, among other products and services. Meta was once one of the world's most valuable companies, but as of 2022 is not one of the top twenty biggest companies in the United States. It is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. As of 2022, it is the least profitable of the five.


title: Meta Platforms

text: Meta's products and services include Facebook, Messenger, Facebook Watch, and Meta Portal. It has also acquired Oculus, Giphy, Mapillary, Kustomer, Presize and has a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms. In 2021, the company generated 97.5% of its revenue from the sale of advertising.


title: Meta Platforms

text: In October 2021, the parent company of Facebook changed its name from Facebook, Inc., to Meta Platforms, Inc., to "reflect its focus on building the metaverse". According to Meta, the "metaverse" refers to the integrated environment that links all of the company's products and services.


title: Meta Platforms

text: Facebook filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on January 1, 2012. The preliminary prospectus stated that the company sought to raise $5 billion, had 845 million monthly active users, and a website accruing 2.7 billion likes and comments daily. After the IPO, Zuckerberg would retain a 22% ownership share in Facebook and would own 57% of the voting shares.


title: Meta Platforms

text: Underwriters valued the shares at $38 each, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly public company. On May 16, one day before the IPO, Facebook announced it would sell 25% more shares than originally planned due to high demand. The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third-largest in US history (slightly ahead of AT&T Wireless and behind only General Motors and Visa). The stock price left the company with a higher market capitalization than all but a few U.S. corporations—surpassing heavyweights such as Amazon, McDonald's, Disney, and Kraft Foods—and made Zuckerberg's stock worth $19 billion. "The New York Times" stated that the offering overcame questions about Facebook's difficulties in attracting advertisers to transform the company into a "must-own stock". Jimmy Lee of JPMorgan Chase described it as "the next great blue-chip". Writers at TechCrunch, on the other hand, expressed skepticism, stating, "That's a big multiple to live up to, and Facebook will likely need to add bold new revenue streams to justify the mammoth valuation."


title: Meta Platforms

text: Trading in the stock, which began on May 18, was delayed that day due to technical problems with the Nasdaq exchange. The stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, forcing underwriters to buy back shares to support the price. At closing bell, shares were valued at $38.23, only $0.23 above the IPO price and down $3.82 from the opening bell value. The opening was widely described by the financial press as a disappointment. The stock nonetheless set a new record for trading volume of an IPO. On May 25, 2012, the stock ended its first full week of trading at $31.91, a 16.5% decline.


title: Meta Platforms

text: On May 22, 2012, regulators from Wall Street's Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced that they had begun to investigate whether banks underwriting Facebook had improperly shared information only with select clients rather than the general public. Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin subpoenaed Morgan Stanley over the same issue. The allegations sparked "fury" among some investors and led to the immediate filing of several lawsuits, one of them a class action suit claiming more than $2.5 billion in losses due to the IPO. Bloomberg estimated that retail investors may have lost approximately $630 million on Facebook stock since its debut. Standard & Poor's added Facebook to its S&P 500 index on December 21, 2013.


title: Meta Platforms

text: On May 2, 2014, Zuckerberg announced that the company would be changing its internal motto from "Move fast and break things" to "Move fast with stable infrastructure". The earlier motto had been described as Zuckerberg's "prime directive to his developers and team" in a 2009 interview in "Business Insider", in which he also said, "Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough."


title: Meta Platforms

text: In 2018, the Oculus lead, Jason Rubin, sent his 50-page vision document titled "The Metaverse" to Facebook's leadership. In the document, Rubin acknowledged that Facebook's virtual reality business had not caught on as expected, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on content for early adopters. He also urged the company to execute fast and invest heavily on the vision, to shut out HTC, Apple, Google and other competitors in the VR space. Regarding other players' participation in the metaverse vision, he called for the company to build the "metaverse" to prevent their competitors from "being in the VR business in a meaningful way at all".


title: Meta Platforms

text: In May 2019, Facebook founded Libra Networks, reportedly to develop their own stablecoin cryptocurrency. Later, it had been reported that Libra was being supported by financial companies such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber. The consortium of companies were expected to pool in $10 million each to fund the launch of the cryptocurrency coin named Libra. Depending on when it would receive approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory authority to operate as a payments service, the Libra Association had planned to launch a limited format cryptocurrency in 2021. Libra was renamed Diem, before being shut down and sold in January 2022 after backlash from government regulators and the public.


title: Meta Platforms

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of online services including Facebook grew globally. Zuckerberg predicted this would be a "permanent acceleration" that would continue after the pandemic. Facebook hired aggressively, growing from 48,268 employees in March 2020 to more than 87,000 by September 2022.