The billionaire made splashy purchases of The Washington Post and a mansion in Washington. But his status as a power player in the nation’s capital was never realized.
A decade ago, Jeff Bezos was expected to make a splash in Washington.
In 2013, the Amazon founder bought The Washington Post for $250 million. Three years later, he became the owner of the city’s largest home, spending $23 million for two combined mansions fit to host lavish events for the capital’s elite. His status as Amazon’s originator and as an innovator with the rocket company Blue Origin was expected to help make him influential inside the Beltway.
But Mr. Bezos, 60, never really arrived.
In the intervening years, he stepped down from Amazon as chief executive and became a topic of tabloid fodder as he divorced his wife and went public with his relationship with Lauren Sánchez, now his fiancée. Mr. Bezos visited the nation’s capital only on occasion — primarily for glitzy events or company emergencies. He bought a $165 million Beverly Hills compound in 2020, setting a California record at the time, and finished building a 400-foot-long mega-yacht last year to sail the world. He has since moved to Miami.
The tech billionaire who is instead making waves in Washington is Elon Musk. Mr. Musk, 53, who leads SpaceX, Tesla and X, has increasingly been drawn to the city because of interest in artificial intelligence and his rocket company, SpaceX, which partners with NASA and competes with Mr. Bezos’ Blue Origin. Tesla and SpaceX were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts last year with 17 federal agencies, according to a New York Times analysis.
On Friday, Mr. Bezos made it clear that he was declining to get involved in Washington’s riptides. The Post announced it would not endorse a presidential candidate this year, breaking from a four-decade practice. It has become increasingly complicated for many titans of industry to navigate the political climate, particularly if their companies have federal contracts or provide other services to the government.
“Even as a C.E.O. of Amazon with a huge amount of regulatory issues, he was rarely seen in town,” Hilary Rosen, a Democratic political strategist and former Washington editor for The Huffington Post, said of Mr. Bezos. “I don’t know if he ever intended to be a business or media industry leader in D.C., but he certainly hasn’t become one.”