Jeff Bezos’ parents' nationality explored as Amazon head honcho leaves Seattle for Miami after 29 years 

On November 2, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced that he would be moving to Miami, Florida, from Seattle, Washington. He took to Instagram to make the announcement. A part of the heartfelt caption reads as follows:

“I’ve lived in Seattle longer than I’ve lived anywhere else and have so many amazing memories here. As exciting as the move is, it’s an emotional decision for me. Seattle, you will always have a piece of my heart.”

Jeff Bezos also added that his move was based on the fact that he wanted to be closer to his parents, who recently moved to Florida, while also overseeing his space project, Blue Origin, which is largely based out of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In the wake of his announcement, Jeff Bezos’ ethnicity has come under scrutiny. While his mother is an American, his adoptive father is a Cuban immigrant in the USA.

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Jeff Bezos uses the surname of his adoptive father Miguel “Mike” Bezos

The 59-year-old Jeff Bezos, who is the founder and former CEO of tech and e-commerce giant Amazon, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Jacklyn Gise and Ted Jorgensen, who were 17 and 18 years old, respectively, when they had him, as per SCMP.

While his mother is an American, his biological father, who later left him, was a Danish-American. A few years after Jacklyn Gise divorced her former husband, she met Cuban immigrant Miguel “Mike” Bezos and married him in 1968. It was then that Miguel legally adopted Jeff and changed his surname from Jorgensen to Bezos.

While Jeff’s biological father never contacted him after that, it was years later that he was contacted by his biographers and got to know that Jeff, the tech billionaire, was his son. In fact, he even appeared in a 2014 interview with Inside Edition, in which he noted that the last time he met Jeff was when the latter was three years old, and he himself worked at Walmart. The bike shop owner later passed away in 2015.

SCMP and Blinkist cite that Jeff Bezos' adoptive father Miguel fled communist Cuba as a teenager and later pursued a successful career in finance at major oil companies, including Exxos Petroleum. In fact, in May 2019, Jeff shared with the world via Twitter how his father came from Cuba at the age of 16, was alone, and could only speak Spanish.

“At the Statue of Liberty, where my dad’s being honored with a Liberty Star as part of the new museum’s opening…His grit, determination, and optimism are inspiring. #StatueofLibertyMuseum.”

It is noteworthy that years later, in 1995, it was Miguel Bezos and Jacklyn who loaned Jeff $245,000 to kickstart his internet business venture, which later turned out to be Amazon and, by 2020, transformed into $1 trillion.

In 2018, Bloomberg put Jeff’s parents estimated net worth at $30 billion. In 2022, they bought a seaside mansion in Florida for $44 million, which was previously owned by The Real Housewives of Miami stars Dr. Nicole Martin and her attorney fiancé Anthony Lopez.

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Exploring why Jeff Bezos is moving from Seattle to Miami

After spending 29 years in Seattle, Jeff Bezos has decided to move to Miami, the place where he spent his adolescence. He announced this on Instagram on Thursday and wrote:

“Seattle has been my home since 1994 when I started Amazon out of my garage.”

The post also contained a video with the tour of young Jeff inside Amazon’s first office as he clarified in the caption how it was his father Miguel who was behind the camera.

“My parents have always been my biggest supporters. They recently moved back to Miami, the place we lived when I was younger (Miami Palmetto High, class of ’82 – GO Panthers!). I want to be close to my parents, and Lauren [Sanchez, his fiancé] and I love Miami.”

He also added how his space exploration firm Blue Origin’s operations were increasingly shifting to Florida’s Cape Canaveral, another vital reason for his decision to move.

“For all that, I’m planning to return to Miami, leaving the Pacific Northwest.”

As per Business Insider, only three weeks ago, Jeff Bezos purchased a seven-bedroom mansion on a small private island in Florida’s Biscayne Bay region. Interestingly, Amazon’s headquarters is in Seattle and has turned part of the city into a distinguished tech hub in the USA.