Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault, compared: the two richest people in the world are worth a combined US$400 billion – but how did the Amazon and LVMH founders get started, and make their millions?
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Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault are the world’s two richest people, with a combined net worth of around US$400 billion.
![French luxury group LVMH chairman and chief executive Bernard Arnault attends an LVMH event at the Vivatech technology start-ups and innovation fair in Paris, in June 2022. Photo: AFP](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/3c5af0d4-4ec4-4de8-a47c-f7f056ce18ee_eee40472.jpg)
![Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks during his news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, in September 2019. Photo: AP Photo](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/7d35a31d-cc2c-4d89-a39e-97913f3d0d8a_5887f68a.jpg)
This is how they made their fortunes.
Jeff Bezos’ first job was at a McDonald’s
![It’s hard to imagine Amazon founder Jeff Bezos working at a McDonald’s ... but that’s exactly where he kicked off his career. Photo: Getty Images](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/4a276c83-b85e-49a8-a78a-ca1e6335bf48_65bfd65d.jpg)
The billionaire said in a 2001 interview with Fast Company that his job at a McDonald’s restaurant in Miami was “really hard”.
“They wouldn’t let me anywhere near the customers. This was my acned-teenager stage. They were like, ‘Hmm, why don’t you work in the back?’” Bezos recalled.
Bezos majored in computer science at Princeton University
![Princeton graduate Jeff Bezos (right) in his youth. Photo: @JeffBezos/X](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/9ceab7e4-1685-41e1-9105-2b3e12ea6ee3_234e7dda.jpg)
A book called The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon states that he joined a telecommunications start-up called Fitel after graduating from Princeton. He then quit Fitel and went to work for Bankers Trust as a product manager, where he focused on selling software to pension-fund clients.
After two years at Bankers Trust, he joined the hedge fund D.E. Shaw and became a senior vice-president after only four years.
He left his hedge fund job in 1994 to start what would become Amazon
Bezos decided books were the best products to start selling online. He then started Amazon.com in a garage in Seattle. Amazon sold books to people in all 50 US states and more than 45 countries in the first month of its launch.
Amazon went public in 1997
![Jeff Bezos arrives at the Statue of Liberty Museum opening celebration at Battery Park in New York, US, in May 2019. Photo: Reuters](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/e7647faa-956f-45fe-9ad5-fa4b22015eea_abda2daa.jpg)
In March 1997, Amazon had about 80,000 average daily visits, TechCrunch reported. It had only 256 employees that year. In the years that followed, Amazon extended its product range beyond books to include electronics, tools, toys, CDs and more.
Bezos invested US$250,000 in Google in 1998, before its IPO in 2004. Time magazine then named Bezos as its Person of the Year in 1999 after Amazon rapidly grew.
Bezos had the same annual base salary of US$81,840 for decades while he was CEO, but his annual total compensation for many years exceeded US$1 million, owing to costs related to security and business travel.
Bezos’ others companies and investments
![Jeff Bezos announces Blue Moon, a lunar landing vehicle for the moon, during a Blue Origin event in Washington DC, in May 2019. Photo: AFP via Getty Images/TNS](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/de6ad3b9-d192-4f2f-af64-f3d05704eccb_47dff629.jpg)
Bezos founded space tourism company Blue Origin in 2000 and bought The Washington Post for US$250 million in 2013.
Bezos announced he was stepping down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021
![Jeff Bezos in a snap for Ulysse Nardin. Photo: @ulyssenardinofficial/Instagram](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/61da469a-8ba7-49f5-aaf0-b6a70124e075_cb6c0b7f.jpg)
After spending 27 years leading the company, Bezos announced he was transitioning to become Amazon’s executive chairman. In 2023, Amazon hit nearly US$575 billion in net sales.
![Lauren Sanchez, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Anna Wintour attend the Tom Ford autumn/winter 2020 show at Milk Studios in February 2020, in Hollywood, California. Photo: Getty Images](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/b702661d-a81c-47b5-a760-8206c2698456_1c1de0ed.jpg)
The company has hundreds of fulfilment centres around the world. It sells millions of products, including appliances, clothing, groceries and toiletries, and it also offers cloud computing services.
In February, Amazon had a market cap of US$1.8 trillion.
Now, moving onto Bernard Arnault …
Arnault started out working for his father’s construction company after university
![Bernard Arnault, circa 1980. Photo: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/ffe5791d-e934-40a5-bd66-0b0deeb62551_6a70d313.jpg)
After studying engineering at the École Polytechnique, Arnault went to work for his father’s construction firm Ferret-Savinel, Bloomberg reported.
Arnault acquired Agache-Willot-Boussac in 1984, which was verging on bankruptcy
![LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault on board his private jet between Beijing and Shanghai, in 2004. Photo: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/cf240bd2-9bc6-4a1b-959b-75582b8578f9_4919813d.jpg)
The company owned brands like French department store Bon Marché and Christian Dior, The New York Times reported. He renamed the firm Financière Agache and kick-started a turnaround effort, which helped it earn US$1.9 billion in revenue just a few years later, the Times reported.
He went on to become LVMH’s largest shareholder
![Bernard Arnault, billionaire and chairman of LVMH, during an LVMH news conference in Paris, France, in July 2023. Photo: Bloomberg](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/25d2c51d-c679-4423-a5e8-cdaf7b2b962b_3aeb65d0.jpg)
Champagne company Dom Pérignon was one of the initial brands part of Moët Hennessy, which later merged with Louis Vuitton to create LVMH in 1987.
Arnault spent US$2.6 billion buying up shares to become the company’s largest shareholder and eventually its chairman and CEO by 1989, per The Times.
His five children also work for LVMH and its brands
![Head of French multinational corporation LVMH Bernard Arnault (centre) and his wife Helene (second from right), surrounded by their children: Frederic, Delphine, Antoine and Alexandre, in June 2021. Photo: AFP](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/fbcfd3a1-08a6-46cc-9624-76f539573fc0_b99e7c6c.jpg)
In 2011, he acquired the Italian jewellery brand Bulgari when it was struggling, Reuters reported.
LVMH now owns more than 75 brands, its website says.
The luxury goods group made US$93.2 billion in 2023
![Owner of LVMH luxury group Bernard Arnault, his wife Helene Mercier-Arnault and their son Alexandre Arnault attend the Christian Dior show as part of the Paris Fashion Week womenswear spring/summer 2018 in September 2017, in Paris, France. Photo: Getty Images](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/25/4a7720a3-8717-416b-93de-415c86df126c_06fd1e9c.jpg)
Arnault said in January, when its earnings were released, “Our performance in 2023 illustrates the exceptional appeal of our maisons and their ability to spark desire despite a year affected by economic and geopolitical challenges.”
It seems like Arnault has no plans to slow down. He told The Financial Times in 2019, “We’re just getting started.”
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- Bezos, whose first job was at a McDonald’s in Miami, attended Princeton and then founded Amazon in a garage in 1994 – he briefly dethroned Microsoft’s Bill Gates as world’s richest person in 2017
- Meanwhile, Arnault’s LVMH conglomerate encompasses luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Dom Pérignon and more – and his 5 kids are all involved in the business, too