Jeff Bezos’ father, Mike Bezos,79, is reportedly undertaking a “major expansion” of the family’s office, has hired a CEO, and is now on the hunt to hire a new chief investment officer to manage an estimated $40 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The new chief executive, Valeria Alberola, was previously employed by Walmart heir Ben Walton and his wife, and will now head up the management of Mike Bezos’ fortune, which is larger than the entire GDPs of Iceland, Cyprus, and Zimbabwe.
The Bezos family office, known as Aurora Borealis, was established in 2020, according to The Wall Street Journal, to manage the wealth of Jeff Bezos’ parents, Mike and Macklyn Bezos. Jacklyn died in August 2025 of Lewy body dementia at the age of 78.
Jeff Bezos has always credited his parents with his success. The Amazon founder’s own fortune is now estimated at $243bn according to Forbes – roughly equal to Greece’s GDP.
Jacklyn and Mike Bezos, who also goes by Miguel, have played a pivotal role in their son’s business journey. In 1995, they invested $250,000 to help him launch Amazon – despite their son’s cautioning them that they might lose every cent, according to Brad Stone’s 2013 book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.
Their support also extended far beyond financial assistance. The former Amazon CEO has spoken about the emotional foundation his parents provided as he transitioned from an investment banker to an entrepreneur.
“They’re so loving and supportive,” Bezos told Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner in 2018, per Business Insider. “When you have loving and supportive people in your life … you end up being able to take risks.”
Bezos was born in January 1964 to Jacklyn and her first husband, Ted Jorgensen, who married as teenagers. But Jogensen gave up custody of his son when the couple split after 17 months of marriage. He reportedly didn’t discover Bezos was his son until 2012.
“The reality, as far as I’m concerned, is that my Dad is my natural father,” Jeff told Wired in 1999. “The only time I ever think about it, genuinely, is when a doctor asks me to fill out a form.”
The U.S. exhibits wider disparities in wealth between the rich and the poor than any other major developed nation, according to the LSE, and the rise in private family offices comes as the wealth divide has grown even larger in recent years, not just in America but around the world, with many countries experiencing similar trends.
According to Deloitte estimates, there were 8,030 single-family offices globally in 2024 – a 31 percent increase since 2019.
That number is expected to climb to 10,720 by 2030, driven by a surge in entrepreneurial wealth and the massive generational handover of assets as baby boomers pass down trillions to their heirs.
