Jeff Bezos In Dollars: $6.2 Billion For AI Startup, $75 Million For Melania And 'Zero' For The Washington Post

Before we go into post-mortem of the massive layoffs at The Washington Post, let us talk about its owner Jeff Bezos in dollars. This, of course, is aside from $250 million dollars he spent to acquire the newspaper more than a decade ago.

Bezos’s commercial empire is anchored by a roughly 10% stake in Amazon, fuelling a net worth that fluctuates near $240 billion. His private ownership includes the aerospace firm Blue Origin, where he has invested over $8 billion to develop reusable rockets and a 5,408-satellite "TeraWave" network. His most recent operational move is Project Prometheus, an AI startup launched in late 2025 with $6.2 billion in funding. His real estate portfolio exceeds $600 million, highlighted by a $165 million Beverly Hills estate, $237 million in Miami’s Billionaire Bunker and $119 million in Manhattan condos. Luxury assets further bolster this wealth, including the $500 million megayacht Koru and a $200 million private jet fleet.

Through Bezos Expeditions, he manages a venture portfolio that has shifted from early bets like a $1 million seed in Google and $112 million in Airbnb toward frontier science. His recent AI-centric investments include $100 million in Perplexity (now valued at $20 billion) and $600 million in Physical Intelligence. In biotechnology, he co-founded Altos Labs with a $3 billion commitment to cellular rejuvenation and invested $134 million in Juno Therapeutics. Other notable figures include a $200 million stake in vertical farming firm Plenty, $190 million in the education platform EverFi, and a $10 billion pledge to the Bezos Earth Fund.

Not too long ago, Bezos’s Amazon MGM Studios dumped some $75 million into a flattering documentary on the first lady, Melania Trump, which many saw as "licensing bribe" for political access.

Bezos is also the man who effectively reimagined the modern e-commerce topography. Whether it is condoms or confetti, everything arrives at your doorstep with a few clicks.

Yet, this Midas touch has faltered at The Washington Post. The publication recently underwent a seismic restructuring that decimated its ranks to offset nearly $180 million in annual losses.

In a sweeping move this Wednesday, the organisation shed approximately 30 per cent of its workforce that saw the departure of over 300 staff members and the effective dismantling of its renowned sports, books and local desks.

'One of the darkest days'

According to The Guardian, former executive editor Marty Baron described the day as one of the "darkest days" in the publication's history.

During an all-hands morning meeting held via Zoom, Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray characterised the move as a "strategic reset" intended to modernise the paper's business model for an increasingly competitive digital environment. Murray admitted that the publication has struggled to connect with "customers" in recent years and argued that these drastic measures were essential to secure the institution's financial future.

The Post's reach is also being significantly narrowed geographically. The international reporting operation is being scaled back to just 12 bureaus with a specific focus on national security, resulting in the dismissal of entire teams covering the Middle East, South Asia including India and China. The Metro desk—the heart of the paper's local mission—is being sharply downsized from over 40 journalists to approximately a dozen.

In the past, The Washington Post generally avoided large-scale cuts within its newsroom, with previous layoffs focussed primarily on the business and technical sides of the company.

Throughout this period of internal turmoil, Bezos has maintained a firm public silence. However, while his media employees faced deep uncertainty, Bezos was seen in person this past Monday in Florida warmly hosting US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth for a tour of Blue Origin, his private aerospace company.

A slipping legacy?

In 2013, Bezos acquired the historic The Washington Post for $250 million, and while he remains the sole proprietor, he delegated the paper's business and operational management to CEO Will Lewis. Bezos brought Lewis on board in late 2023 with a specific mandate to restore the publication's financial health following a period of steep audience erosion and dwindling subscription numbers. During a 2024 meeting with employees, Lewis delivered a blunt assessment of the situation, revealing that the company was haemorrhaging significant capital. He noted that the paper’s readership had effectively been cut in half over several years, warning that the organisation's work was failing to reach a sufficient audience.

An article by Margaret Sullivan Is Jeff Bezos going to destroy the Washington Post? It sure looks like it in The Guardian warned that Bezos's actions are causing 'self-inflicted wounds' and 'what may be permanent damage to a great newspaper'. Sullivan further wrote "While it’s true that the Post is losing money, maybe $100m a year, Bezos could clearly afford to simply support the paper. For someone whose net worth is inexhaustibly huge (roughly $250bn), this is essentially pocket change, or as the statistics expert Nate Silver put it, “a rounding error”."

According to The New York Times, when Bezos purchased The Washington Post, it ended eight decades of stewardship by the Graham family, whose leadership had defined the paper through era-defining reporting on the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. In his early interactions with the newsroom, Bezos urged the staff to lean into the "gifts of the internet"—such as global scalling and digital experimentation—that had fuelled Amazon’s success. He initially backed this vision with significant financial investment, funding a major expansion of the newsroom and its technological capabilities.

During this period, Bezos took an active interest in product strategy and appointed Fred Ryan, the former CEO of Politico, as publisher to succeed Graham descendant Katharine Weymouth. He maintained a strong professional bond with executive editor Marty Baron, whom he often praised as an invaluable mentor in the craft of journalism. Upon Baron’s retirement in 2021, Bezos personally participated in the selection of his successor, Sally Buzbee, even hosting her at his home in the Kalorama neighbourhood of Washington to discuss the paper's future.

However, the initial momentum and period of rapid growth eventually began to stall. Following his decision to step down as Amazon's CEO in 2021, Bezos appeared to take a more distant role in the paper's day-to-day culture. This shift coincided with a decline in audience engagement and the eventual financial struggles that led to the drastic "strategic reset" this month.

Beyond the structural changes, The Washington Post has also experienced a severe "brain drain" over the past year, losing a significant portion of its most decorated talent. This exodus has impacted both the newsroom and the highest levels of the corporate masthead.

Revenue in the red

To understand the current financial and structural state of The Washington Post, it is necessary to separate the newspaper’s private operations under Bezos from the publicly traded legacy entity, Graham Holdings Company.

Since its purchase by Bezos, The Washington Post has operated as a private entity under Nash Holdings LLC. Because it is no longer a public company, it does not release formal balance sheets or share prices. While the paper saw a massive surge in digital growth between 2017 and 2021, reaching a peak of roughly 3 million subscribers, it has recently faced significant headwinds. Reports estimate that the subscriber base has settled around 2 million following a series of high-profile cancellations and a general decline in digital traffic.

Before becoming private, the paper was the centrepiece of The Washington Post Company (WPO), which went public in 1971. For decades, it was considered a premier "blue chip" media stock, famously backed by Warren Buffett. During this period, the company's share price grew from an initial $26 to several hundred dollars, though much of that valuation eventually shifted toward its non-journalism assets, such as Kaplan Education. By the time of the 2013 sale, the newspaper division was actually a financial drag on the parent company, reporting tens of millions in annual operating losses as advertising revenue shifted to digital platforms.

Peers in trouble too

The financial crisis at The Washington Post reflects a broader industry-wide struggle for survival among traditional news publishers. Many legacy outlets are battling a perfect storm of challenges: print circulation continues to collapse and digital traffic is being increasingly cannibalised by the rise of generative artificial intelligence.

Furthermore, modern audiences have fragmented across various social media platforms, making it harder for singular news brands to maintain a dominant presence. In response, publishers have been forced to move toward experimental revenue models, including high-end premium memberships and live event hosting, in a desperate attempt to stabilise their balance sheets.

Commerce sans remorse

Bezos has simply ignored the individuals who were forced to quit the company. While he has kept his eyes fixed on profits, he has perhaps undervalued the price of the legacy he promised to nurture.

Published on: Thursday, February 05, 2026, 02:30 PM IST