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Page 53

by Brad Stone


  Niekerk, David, 110–13, 219, 221, 230, 312

  Nielsen, 203

  Nike, 180

  9/11 terrorist attacks, 117

  Nisqually earthquake, 7

  Nordstrom, 253

  Northrop Grumman, 279, 280

  NSO Group, 344

  Nuance, 27, 37

  Obama, Barack, 132 administration of, 110, 270, 297, 311, 368

  Obama, Michelle, 1, 132

  Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria, 16, 307, 308, 310

  Oceanco, 347–48

  O’Dell, Trip, 239

  Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, 183

  Olsavsky, Brian, 246

  Omidyar, Pierre, 122

  O’Neill, Gerard K., 281

  OnePlus, 77

  Onetto, Marc, 166, 218–21, 224, 225

  OneWeb, 279

  Oracle, 97–99, 173, 360, 361

  Oscars, 137, 322

  OSHA, 224

  Osowski, Lukasz, 28

  Outcast Agency, 324

  Overstock, 373

  paddle boards, 170, 374–75

  Paramount Pictures, 158

  Paris climate accords, 2, 381

  Parkland shooting, 301

  Paull, Michael, 146

  Pecker, David, 328, 331–32, 334, 337–39, 341, 342, 345

  Pegasus, 344

  Pelosi, Nancy, 1

  Penner, Greg, 90

  People’s Production Company, 142

  Pérez Sagaón, Abril, 85–86

  Perry, Katy, 325

  Perticucci, Roy, 392

  Peterson, Matt, 97

  phatic speech, 34–35

  philanthropy, 15, 16, 244, 288, 290, 402–4 Bezos Day 1 Fund, 49, 324, 406

  Bezos Earth Fund, 402–4, 406

  Blue Origin and, 269, 281–82

  of MacKenzie Scott, 323–24, 346, 402–3

  Piacentini, Diego, 71, 73, 77, 79, 80, 83, 100, 104

  Pichai, Sundar, 359, 369

  Pitt, Brad, 325

  Plugable Technologies, 176, 375–76

  Pluimer, Larry, 181

  Poitier, Sidney, 141

  Politico, 124

  Poovalingam, Vinoth, 76

  PopSockets, 367–68

  Porter, Brad, 399

  Portrait of a Nation Prize, 1–2

  Prakash, Shailesh, 123, 129–30

  Prasad, Rohit, 35–38, 42, 47, 52

  presidential candidates in 2020 election, 351, 353–55, 364

  Price, Frank, 140–41

  Price, Roy, 136, 137, 140–57

  Prione Business Services, 77

  Prisoner (Rezaian), 131

  privacy, 23, 51–52

  ProPublica, 237, 240

  Procter & Gamble, 202, 246, 251

  Project Kuiper, 404

  Puerini, Gianna, 55–57, 59, 62, 64–66, 68

  Purohit, Jagdish Raj, 92

  Quidsi, 9–10, 193, 209, 222

  Quinn, Sally, 133

  Rabbit, 195, 238–39

  Raghavan, Bali, 56, 58, 62

  Rakuten Intelligence, 240–41

  Ramji, Shiven, 251

  Rashid, Taimur, 99

  Ratner, Brett, 337

  Rawlings, Mike, 300, 308

  Raytheon, 280

  Reagan, Ronald, 124

  Reddit, 52

  Refn, Nicolas Winding, 152

  Reid, Toni, 45, 46, 51

  Reliance Industries, 93, 384

  research and development (R&D) expenses, 67

  Reuters, 77, 210

  Reveal, 224

  Rezaian, Jason, 131–32

  RFID chips, 57, 225

  Rhimes, Shonda, 154

  Riggs, Conrad, 145

  Ring, 319, 367

  Rivian Automotive, 4

  Robb, Walter, 185

  Robertson, James, 330, 332, 333

  robotics, 55, 56, 213, 222–24, 388, 389

  Rodriguez, Alex, 325

  Rogers, Ty, 120

  Rolle, Nina, 30, 289

  Rolls-Royce, 280

  Romanoffs, The, 152

  Ronen, Assaf, 258

  Rosa, Mike, 299

  Rose, Charlie, 54

  Rosenstein, Barry, 186

  RosettiStarr, 360

  Rosseter, Megan, 207–8

  Roth, Mike, 216–17, 225, 229–31, 233

  Rubinstein, David, 350

  Ruffin, Scott, 233

  Rupp, Chris, 104–7, 112

  Russell, David O., 152

  Russia, 272

  Ryan, Fred, 124–25, 131, 133, 343

  Safeway, 186, 192, 196

  St. Vincent, 325

  sales taxes, 11, 213, 250

  Salke, Jennifer, 157

  Samuel J. Heyman Spirit of Service Award, 343

  Samsung, 38, 77

  Sanchez, Eleanor, 325–27, 346–47

  Sanchez, Lauren, 136, 310, 325–28, 382, 383, 403, 405 Bezos’s meeting of, 326

  Bezos’s relationship with, 17, 283, 318–19, 321–22, 324, 326–28, 344–47

  marriage to Whitesell, 136, 325–28

  National Enquirer story on Bezos’s relationship with, 17, 319, 328–42, 344

  Sanchez, Michael, 325–30, 332–36, 338, 340, 342, 345–58

  Sanchez, Paul, 325–26

  Sanchez, Ray, 325

  Sandberg, Sheryl, 251

  Sanders, Bernie, 355, 356

  SAP America, 360

  satellites, 404

  Saudi Arabia, 17, 321, 340, 342–45, 347

  Saunders, Paul, 372–73, 376

  Sawant, Kshama, 291–92, 303

  Schmidt, Eric, 88, 193

  Schoettler, John, 290, 299, 303, 304, 312

  Schultz, Howard, 6

  Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 328

  Scott, MacKenzie (formerly Bezos), 5, 12, 15–17, 22, 41, 124, 136, 143, 144, 154, 180, 244, 245, 269, 322–25 Bystander Revolution and, 323–24, 346

  divorce of, 16–17, 318–21, 334, 345, 346, 349

  divorce settlement of, 346

  Giving Pledge and, 346

  name change of, 346

  philanthropy of, 323–24, 346, 402–3

  Traps, 64

  remarriage of, 403

  Seattle, Wash., 289–95, 303–5 Amazon headquarters in, see Amazon headquarters in Seattle

  Bellevue, 304, 305

  Employee Hours Tax in, 303–5

  Seattle Times, 290

  SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), 7

  September 11 terrorist attacks, 117

  Sequoia, 192

  Service Merchandise, 214

  Seymour, Greg, 276

  Shanghai Snow, 153

  Shark Tank, 170, 374

  Shimmer, 22–23

  Shopify, 378

  Shotwell, Gwynne, 265, 282

  Showtime, 140

  Shriver, Maria, 136

  Silicon Valley, 6, 22, 48, 96, 98, 111, 129, 187, 234, 252, 253, 290, 295 see also big tech companies

  Simons, Joseph, 366

  Simpson, Andrea, 329–30, 332, 338

  Singer, Marty, 334, 337–39

  Siri, 26, 27, 30, 32, 34

  Sirosh, Joseph, 54

  60 Minutes, 233, 397

  SKDK, 311, 314

  Skyfall, 252

  Slifka, Janet, 42

  Smalls, Chris, 394–95, 397

  Smart, Bradford, 111

  Smart & Final, 192

  smartphones, 38–41, 77, 92 Fire Phone, 2, 13, 15, 22, 33, 38–42, 45, 46, 58, 70, 95, 189, 382

  iPhone, see iPhone

  smart speakers, 50 Echo, see Amazon Echo

  Google Home, 50

  Smith, Bob, 265–66, 280, 281

  Smith, Fred, 227, 235, 242

  Smith, Ryan, 296

  Smithsonian Institution, 1–3, 382

  Smugmug, 96

  Snapchat, 103

  Soderstrom, Tom, 96

  Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques, 392

  Soloway, Joey, 143, 144

  Son, Masayoshi (“Masa”), 90

  Sony Pictures, 2
52

  Souq.com, 343–44

  Sowers, George, 279

  So You Think You Can Dance, 326

  Space Flight Award, 277

  SpaceNews, 272

  Space Symposium, 278, 279

  SpaceX, 264–65, 268–69, 270–74, 277, 278, 280, 282–83, 404 Falcon rockets of, 264–65, 278

  Spacey, Kevin, 153

  Spain, 71, 80, 81

  speakers, 50 Echo, see Amazon Echo

  Google Home, 50

  speech, computer-synthesized, 28–29

  speech recognition, 28, 36, 55 in Alexa, 28, 33, 36, 37

  Spheres, 150–51, 288, 289, 327, 381

  Spiker, 28

  Sprouts Farmers Market, 197

  stack ranking, 110–12, 114, 219

  Stahl, Lesley, 397

  Starbucks, 6, 305

  Starlink, 404

  Star Trek, 23, 30–31, 35, 274

  Stephenson, Dave, 246–48

  Stephenson, Neal, 267

  Stone, Roger, 336

  Stonesifer, Patty, 403–4

  “Stop BEZOS” bill, 355

  Stracher, Cameron, 332, 339

  Streisand, Barbra, 325

  Streitfeld, David, 109–10

  Stringer, Tom, 311

  Sullivan, Holly, 235, 298–300, 308, 311–13, 316

  SummitLA conference, 322

  Sunrise Telecom, 92

  Super Bowl, 48, 131, 283, 347

  supermarkets, see grocery business

  Susi, Steve, 252

  Sutton, Nate, 202, 368–69

  Szulczewski, Peter, 171, 172

  Tal Yguado, Sharon, 149

  Tambor, Jeffrey, 143, 144, 153

  Taobao, 72

  Target, 158, 192, 216, 231–32, 242, 363, 373, 378

  taxes Amazon and, 117–18, 291, 301, 303, 335, 351, 354–57, 364

  Employee Hours Tax, 303–5

  income, 291–92, 303

  sales, 11, 213, 250

  Taylor, Mitchell, 310

  Taylor, Tom, 51, 166, 167

  Teamsters, 216–17, 242

  techlash, 290, 305, 349–53, 364, 380 see also big tech companies

  Telesat, 279

  Tencent, 88

  Tesco, 190

  Tesla, 235–36, 264, 282, 283, 294 Gigafactories, 73, 236, 293, 299, 315

  text to speech (TTS), 28

  Thiel, Peter, 360

  Thimsen, John, 26, 35

  Thompson, Ben, 103–4

  Thompson, Bernie, 176–77, 375–76

  Thomson, James, 377

  Thornton, Billy Bob, 149–50

  Thunberg, Greta, 381

  Time, 6, 331, 345

  Time Warner Cable, 140

  Tmall, 72, 379

  T-Mobile, 252

  Tolkien, J. R. R., 149

  Too Old to Die Young, 152

  Top Gear, 145

  Topgrading (Smart), 111

  Tower Paddle Boards, 170, 374–75

  Toyota, 218, 219

  Toys “R” Us, 216

  Trader Joe’s, 196–97

  Transparent, 13, 137, 143, 144, 148, 157

  Traps (Bezos), 64

  Travelodge Hotel, 290

  Trend Nation, 180

  True Knowledge, 34

  Trump, Donald, 54, 117, 130–31, 133, 135, 279, 324, 327, 328, 335–37, 341, 342, 359, 367, 381, 386 Amazon and, 117–18, 183, 242, 335, 351, 357–58, 364

  AMI and, 331, 340

  Bezos and, 53, 117–21, 133–34, 351, 357–58, 361–63

  Catz and, 360

  JEDI and, 360

  Washington Post and, 16, 117–21, 128, 133–34, 335, 336, 351, 357–58, 363

  Trump, Donald, Jr., 361

  Trump, Ivanka, 132–33

  TRW, 269

  Tunstall-Pedoe, William, 34–37

  Tweedy, Jeff, 154, 325

  12 Parties, 153

  20th Century Fox, 139

  Uber, 96, 195, 229

  Unilever, 251, 260

  unions, see labor unions

  United Kingdom, 175, 248

  United Launch Alliance (ULA), 272, 279

  United Nations, 345

  United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 3

  United Space Alliance, 265–66

  United Way, 290

  Universal Pictures, 141

  UPS, 215, 235, 239–42 Amazon’s partnership with, 14, 216–17, 225–28, 232, 233, 242, 358

  Sunday deliveries by, 242

  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 67

  U.S. Postal Service (USPS), 227, 228, 235, 241, 242, 335, 351, 357–58

  US Weekly, 335

  US West, 26

  Utzschneider, Lisa, 253

  Valdez, Arthur, 215–18, 225, 230–32

  Valentine, Brian, 55

  Van Bramer, Jimmy, 308–9

  Vedder, Eddie, 290

  Vedmed, Erica, 162

  Vedmed, Victor, 161–63

  Verizon, 381

  Vestager, Margrethe, 366, 380

  Vice News, 395

  Virgin, 6

  Virginia, 16, 301, 302, 305, 307, 308, 313

  virtual assistants, 26, 42 Alexa, see Amazon Alexa

  Siri, 26, 27, 30, 32, 34

  vision, computer, 13, 54–55, 57–58, 62–64, 68

  Vogue, 136, 323

  voice recognition, 28, 36, 55 in Alexa, 28, 33, 36, 37

  von Furstenberg, Diane, 346

  Vonn, Lindsey, 136

  Vons, 186

  Vulcan Inc., 288, 289, 305

  Wall Street Journal, 66, 68, 130, 154, 172, 177, 203, 242, 258, 294, 295, 345, 368

  Walmart, 6, 8, 9, 13, 69, 92, 109, 158, 185, 190, 209, 215, 242, 263, 354, 363, 373, 378, 384 Flipkart and, 88–91, 287, 384

  in Mexico, 80–82, 85

  Walton, Sam, 263

  Wandell, Morgan, 144

  warehouses, see Amazon fulfillment centers

  Warren, Elizabeth, 14–15, 353–54, 365

  Washington, D.C., Amazon offices in, 296–97

  Washington Post, 17, 117–34, 135, 154, 206, 244, 264, 279, 288, 313, 323, 327, 343, 344, 358, 382, 387, 406 advertising and, 130

  Amazon and, 117–21, 126, 130, 134, 357, 363

  Apple and, 129–30

  Arc Publishing and, 129

  Bezos’s acquisition of, 16, 118, 121–25, 127, 129, 134, 363

  Bezos-Sanchez scandal and, 337–38

  Bezos’s management of, 121, 125–33, 150

  financial difficulties of, 121–22

  financial turnaround of, 130, 132

  headquarters of, 132

  India and, 384

  Pancake Group at, 124, 125, 127, 129, 130, 133

  partnership program of, 125–26

  pension plans of, 127–28

  Rainbow app of, 124, 129

  Rezaian and, 131–32

  Saudi Arabia and, 321, 340, 347

  Trump and, 16, 117–21, 128, 133–34, 335, 336, 351, 357–58, 363

  Zuckerberg and, 121–22

  Washington Post Guild, 128

  Wayfair, 373

  Wazir, Maria Toorpakai, 324

  Webvan, 187–88, 190, 192, 222

  Weekend conference, 88

  Weiner, Matthew, 152

  Weinstein, Harvey, 152, 155–57, 328

  Weinstein, Joshua, 124, 161, 263

  Weinstein Company, 152, 153, 155

  Welch, Jack, 111, 220

  Weprin, Mark, 311

  West Nile Virus, 385

  Westheimer, Ruth, 323

  WeWork, 182

  Weymouth, Katharine, 123

  whistleblowers, 397–99

  Whitesell, Patrick, 136, 325–27

  Who, 145

  Whole Foods Market, 184–86, 208–10, 214, 242–43, 312, 320, 396 absence of rewards program at, 185

  Albertsons Companies and, 186

  Amazon Prime Now and, 197

  Amazon’s acquisition of, 14, 15, 69, 186–87, 209–12, 213, 287, 353, 367

  Covid-19 and, 390, 391, 397


  Instacart and, 192, 197

  Jana Partners and, 186

  Neuberger Berman and, 185–86, 210

  operating structure of, 185

  regional chains acquired by, 185

  365 Everyday Value brand of, 204, 211

  Wilke, Jeff, 8, 48, 81–84, 106–7, 139, 180–83, 193–94, 196, 202, 208, 210, 211, 216, 218, 223, 231, 237–38, 244, 246–48, 251, 255, 260, 387, 390, 401–2

  Wilkie, Jason, 164

  Williams, Cynthia, 166–67

  Williams, Michelle, 135

  Wimbledon, 345

  Winfrey, Oprah, 154

  Wintour, Anna, 1, 2

  Wired, 34, 50, 267

  Wish.com, 171–72

  Wooden, John, 24

  Woodward, Bob, 133

  World Health Organization, 387

  World Resources Institute, 403

  World Wide Web, 5, 405

  Wright, Jimmy, 215

  WS Retail, 77, 88

  Wulff, Meghan, 105–9, 112

  Wurman, Peter, 224

  Xfinity, 139

  Yahoo, 193, 250, 253

  Yale Law Journal, 307, 351, 364–66

  Yale, Matt, 208

  Yang, Stephen, 176–77, 375

  Yap, 27–28

  Yegge, Steve, 261

  YogaRat, 373–74

  YouTube, 41

  Zapolsky, David, 351, 363–66, 372, 395

  Zappos, 9, 15, 193, 211, 220, 222, 353

  Zara, 179

  Zhang, Danny, 172

  Zillow, 109

  Zoox, 283

  Zuckerberg, Mark, 121–22, 345, 368, 369

  Zumwalt, Kurt, 379–80

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