Using his vast fortune, Bezos has invested in all sorts of projects, ranging from a huge clock in the middle of the American desert, to a company dedicated to finding wreckage from the Apollo space missions in the middle of the ocean.
Buying a newspaper seems quaint in comparison. Here are just a few of his other unusual and wacky investments:
Big clock
This isn’t as much of an investment as it is a pet project, but a couple of years ago Bezos spent $US42 million of his own cash on a 10,000 year clock in the middle of the Texas desert.
3D printing
This new craze has taken tech-heads by storm, and Bezos is right at the forefront of the revolution – he has a modest investment in Makerbot, a manufacturer of 3D printing machines.
Rocket wreckage
This is a strange one. Bezos founded a wreckage recovery business, which is all about finding discarded parts of rockets and spaceships that have fallen into the ocean as part of the Apollo program, way back in the 1970s.
Last month he even wrote a blog post from a ship on a mission to find lost parts.
Quantum computing
At least this is related to technology. Last year, Bezos joined the CIA in pumping cash into quantum computing firm In-Q-Tel.
Glass cups
This one is just weird. Bezos is an investor in a company called Glassybaby. The business creates glasses designed to hold a certain type of candle.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
