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It’s a far cry from the low profile Bezos cultivated for years. Like fellow Seattle billionaire Bill Gates, he showed little interest in matching the glitzy lifestyle of other tech titans, such as Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison, whose purchases have included a Hawaiian island and super-yacht.

That doesn’t mean Bezos hasn’t spent boatloads of money. As well as properties on both coasts, he has his own rural getaway: 170,000 hectares of desert scrub in Texas, where he indulges his passion for space exploration. He’s previously said that he’s funding rocket company Blue Origin LLC with about US$1 billion a year through the sale of Amazon stock.

“The price of admission to space is very high,” Bezos said in 2018, accepting the Buzz Aldrin Space Exploration Award at the Explorers Club Annual Dinner. “I’m in the process of converting my Amazon lottery winnings into a much lower price of admission so we can go explore the Solar System.”

That still leaves plenty left over for other pursuits, from the Washington Post to a clock built in the Sierra Diablo mountain range in Texas that’s designed to run for 10,000 years. He’s also currently house hunting in Los Angeles, according to the New York Post.

His wealth is still soaring. The value of his remaining Amazon stock has climbed by US$11 billion this year.

Bloomberg.com