Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon from his Seattle garage in 1994 and invested billions of dollars to transform the city into a tech boomtown, said Thursday he is leaving his home of three decades and moving to Miami.
Mr. Bezos, 59, announced his move In an Instagram post on Thursday night. He said his parents had recently moved back to Miami, where he attended high school, and he wanted to be closer to them. Him and his partner Lauren Sanchez.
Another factor, he said, is that the operations of his rocket company, Blue Origin, are rapidly shifting to Cape Canaveral, Florida, more than 200 miles by road north of Miami along the state’s Atlantic coast.
Bloomberg News reported last month That Mr. Bezos bought a mansion in South Florida for $79 million came just months after he bought a neighboring mansion for $68 million. According to Bloomberg, Mr Bezos is worth $161 billion, making him the third richest person in the world.
Mr Bezos said in his Instagram post that he had “amazing memories” of Seattle and had lived there longer than anywhere else. “As exciting as this move is, it is an emotional decision for me,” he wrote. “Seattle, you will always be a piece of my heart.”
a brief Video The post Mr. Bezos posted along with his Instagram announcement shows him touring Amazon’s first office, a humble affair based on his Seattle garage. The room contains a few giant white computers, a dry-erase board covered with writing, and a fax machine atop a gray filing cabinet.
“See this big orange extension cord?” a young Mr. Bezos, wearing jeans and in good mood, says at one point to his father, the cameraman. “This is one of those devices that we must have because there is not enough electricity in this room. So we’ll have to bring in some extra circuit breakers.”
“And, uh, that’s about it,” he says at the end of the video over the sound of a dog barking. “It doesn’t take much time to visit the offices of Amazon.com Inc.”
It was not immediately clear late Thursday how people in Seattle or Miami felt about his move to Miami.
