AAA
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, appears to have flown into Sydney on an $US80 million private jet with his new wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos, touching down around 1pm local time on Friday.
Patrons said that they had seen the Bezoses dining at the upscale eatery Mimi’s near Coogee beach. Bezos is ranked as the world’s fourth-richest man by Forbes, with a net worth of about $US260 billion ($372 billion).
This masthead was provided with slightly blurry images of the couple by patrons surprised to see one of the world’s genuine tech titans in Sydney, lunching alongside an unidentified woman in pink.
There was no official confirmation that the man was Bezos, but one source said that if it wasn’t him, it was a man whose wife was a spitting image of Sanchez Bezos, and who had enough cash to surround himself with private security. Burly bodyguards preceded the Bezoses’ entry into the restaurant, the patron said, and sat at a table nearby throughout their meal.
Flight-tracking data also shows that a plane widely reported as belonging to Bezos, a Gulfstream G700 private jet, landed in Sydney at 1.15pm AEST after flying from the Pacific.
The billionaire owner of The Washington Post is no longer the chief executive of Amazon, the online shopping and web services giant that accounts for most of his fortune, but remains the company’s executive chairman.
Bezos has instead reportedly been spending more of his time at his rocket company Blue Origin, which is closing in on a mammoth $US10 billion capital raising as it tries to catch up to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
That raising, which is all but complete, values the company at about $130 billion, but it suffered a setback in May when one of its signature New Glenn rockets exploded on the ground during testing.
Flight-tracking expert Jack Sweeney first identified Bezos as the owner of the Gulfstream G700 plane, which boasts a top speed near Mach 1 and can host up to 19 people, in 2024. It is among the most luxurious private jets available for purchase and the top of Gulfstream’s range, boasting up to five living areas, depending on its configuration, and a range of 14,353 kilometres.
Bezos’ fortune puts him below the world’s richest man, Musk, and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, but above Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Bezos married Sanchez, his second wife, in 2025.
The Bezoses’ plans in Australia are unknown. Amazon in Australia and Merivale, the company that operates Mimi’s, were contacted for comment.
The company, now run by Bezos’ lieutenant Andy Jassy, has adapted to the surging prominence of artificial intelligence by investing in leading AI lab Anthropic. Its cloud computing business has also been buttressed by AI companies’ demand for processing power to train their new models.
Related Article
His ownership of the Post has proved far more controversial in recent years. After buying the paper for $US250 million in 2013, when he had more left-leaning politics, Bezos did not make substantial changes. But during Donald Trump’s second presidency, Bezos has installed conservative-leaning top editors who have made deep lay-offs at the paper and changed its editorial politics.
Fellow technology billionaire Bill Gates visited Australia in February, attending the Australian Open and touring the Pilbara in Western Australia with an eye to its potential as home for major data centres.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
Nick Bonyhady is the business editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a former deputy federal editor, technology editor and industrial relations reporter.Connect via X or email.