Jeff Bezos at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 10, 2024 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
David Grogan | CNBC
A version of this article first appeared on CNBC's Inside Wealth with Robert Frank, a weekly guide for high-net-worth investors and consumers. Register to receive future issues directly to your inbox.
Jeff Bezos has been making headlines for his big-ticket purchases, from a $165 million property in Los Angeles and a $177 million estate in Indian Creek, Miami, to his $500 million yacht.
Bezos' biggest recent buying spree, however, may be in artificial intelligence, via his family office.
All of the investments made this year by Bezos' family office, called Bezos Expeditions, have been in artificial intelligence, according to exclusive data provided to CNBC by FINTRX, a private wealth intelligence platform. While the amounts invested are not disclosed, Bezos Expeditions participated in funding rounds totaling more than $1 billion.
In January, the Amazon The founder and CEO invested in the $73.6 million Series B round of Perplexity AI, an AI-based search engine company. He also invested in a $63 million follow-up round in April. The value of Bezos Expeditions’ January investment likely doubled in April as the company says its valuation soared to between $2.5 billion and $3 billion.
In February, Bezos Expeditions invested in Figure AI, the humanoid robot company that also has Nvidia and Microsoft as investors. The venture capital round totaled $675 million.
In July, it invested in a $300 million Series A round of Skild AI, which focuses on building AI systems for machines and robotic devices.
Bezos Expeditions has always been heavily tech-heavy. According to FINTRX, 70% of his family office’s investments are in technology. The next largest category is consumer goods, at 16%, followed by financial services and manufacturing, both at 13%. But now, his main focus appears to be artificial intelligence.
In a podcast interview in January, Bezos said AI tools are “not inventions, but discoveries” that will have a profound impact on technology and change. “These powerful tools are far more likely to help us and save us than to unbalance us, hurt us and destroy us,” he said.
Bezos has plenty of company among family offices. According to UBS’s Global Family Office Report, AI is now the favorite investment category for family offices. More than three-quarters (78%) of family offices surveyed plan to invest in AI in the next two to three years, the most for any category.
Amazon has also been pouring money into artificial intelligence. The company plans to invest more than $100 billion in data centers over the next decade and has invested $4 billion in Anthropic, the AI research and security company.
Bezos recently unveiled a stock sale plan to offload another $5 billion worth of Amazon stock this year, after selling $8 billion earlier this year. With more than $13 billion in cash, Bezos will now have even more money to bet on the rise of artificial intelligence.
