Mr. Bezos went to Washington. But he never arrived.

In 2013, the Amazon laminitis bought The Washington Post for $250 million. Three years later, helium became the proprietor of the city’s largest home, spending $23 cardinal for 2 combined mansions acceptable to big lavish events for the capital’s elite. His presumption arsenic Amazon’s originator and arsenic an innovator with the rocket institution Blue Origin was expected to assistance marque him influential wrong the Beltway.

But Bezos, 60, ne'er truly arrived.

In the intervening years, helium stepped down from Amazon arsenic CEO and became a taxable of tabloid fodder arsenic helium divorced his woman and went nationalist with his narration with Lauren Sánchez, present his fiancee. Bezos visited the nation’s superior lone connected juncture — chiefly for glitzy events oregon institution emergencies. He bought a $165 cardinal Beverly Hills compound successful 2020, mounting a California grounds astatine the time, and finished gathering a 400-foot-long megayacht past twelvemonth to sail the world. He has since moved to Miami.

The tech billionaire who is alternatively making waves successful Washington is Elon Musk. Musk, 53, who leads SpaceX, Tesla and the societal level X, has progressively been drawn to the metropolis due to the fact that of involvement successful artificial quality and his rocket company, SpaceX, which partners with NASA and competes with Bezos’ Blue Origin. Tesla and SpaceX were promised $3 cardinal crossed astir 100 antithetic contracts past twelvemonth with 17 national agencies, according to a New York Times analysis.

On Friday, Bezos made it wide that helium was declining to get progressive successful Washington’s riptides. The Post announced it would not endorse a statesmanlike campaigner this year, breaking from a four-decade practice. It has go progressively analyzable for galore titans of manufacture to navigate the governmental climate, peculiarly if their companies person national contracts oregon supply different services to the government.

“Even arsenic a CEO of Amazon with a immense magnitude of regulatory issues, helium was seldom seen successful town,” Hilary Rosen, a Democratic governmental strategist and erstwhile Washington exertion for The Huffington Post, said of Bezos. “I don’t cognize if helium ever intended to beryllium a concern oregon media manufacture person successful DC, but helium surely hasn’t go one.”

Bezos did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.

A spokesperson for the Post said Friday that ending statesmanlike endorsements was a “Washington Post decision.” In a connection Saturday, Will Lewis, the paper’s CEO and publisher, added that helium did not judge successful endorsements.

Bezos wasn’t ever envisioned arsenic a imaginable DC powerfulness player. The entrepreneur spent overmuch of his vocation successful Seattle aft founding Amazon successful his store successful the Seattle country successful 1994. He turned the e-commerce tract into a juggernaut successful online retail, online streaming, unreality computing and AI.

After a decade, Amazon became 1 of the astir invaluable nationalist companies and Bezos 1 of the richest radical successful the world. Today, his nett worthy is $211 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Bezos began deploying his wealthiness successful antithetic ways. In 2013, helium bought the Post for $250 million, establishing him successful Washington. Many successful the newsroom feared helium mightiness interfere with the day-to-day operations of the insubstantial — and power its sum of his e-commerce behemoth.

Bezos held a municipality hallway successful 2013 wherever helium promised editorial independence, and that helium would not basal successful the mode of captious sum of Amazon. He said helium would defer to the editorial board’s positions, which helium said were aligned with his politics.

“Don’t beryllium boring,” helium emphasized.

After that, helium was mostly invisible successful the newsroom, a mysterious fig who met chiefly with reporters who had won journalism awards, respective existent and erstwhile Post employees said.

In October 2016, Bezos bought a residence successful Washington, a 27,000-square-foot erstwhile textile museum. At the time, 1 of his aides said that Bezos wanted to beryllium much progressive successful nationalist affairs and to beryllium person to the Post. He besides planned to big parties and salons, the adjutant said.

The acquisition stoked anticipation that Bezos would formed himself successful the mold of Katharine Graham, the distinguished Post steadfast who backed the newsroom done its reporting connected the Watergate scandal, which forced President Richard Nixon to resign. Graham’s location successful Georgetown was a hub of Washington’s precocious nine wherever she convened authorities officials, concern leaders and celebrities.

“There was that assumption. He bought a large place. It seems to beryllium acceptable up to clasp parties,” said Robert Allbritton, the erstwhile proprietor of Politico. “It’s like, ‘OK, possibly he’s conscionable being much politically progressive now.’”

But Amazon was moving astatine the aforesaid clip to found itself arsenic a powerfulness subordinate successful Hollywood with its Prime Video offering. Bezos bought a location successful Beverly Hills successful 2007, arsenic Amazon began expanding into entertainment.

Bezos’ Hollywood coming retired was successful 2016, erstwhile helium gave a enactment — a lavish lawsuit successful the discourse of awards play — to observe the Oscar favourite “Manchester by the Sea,” an Amazon Studios release. It was held astatine his mansion, precocious supra Sunset Boulevard. The evening appears to beryllium the archetypal clip that helium and Sánchez, a erstwhile Los Angeles TV anchor, were publically photographed together.

In 2019, Bezos and MacKenzie Scott, his woman of 25 years, announced their program to split. The adjacent day, the National Enquirer reported that Bezos was romantically progressive with Sánchez.

Bezos kept immoderate semblance of a beingness successful Washington. He attended a 2019 gala thrown by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, wherever the depository unveiled his portrait. In January 2020, helium hosted an after-party for the yearly Alfalfa Club dinner, a black-tie gathering of influential figures successful concern and politics. Bezos besides gave $200 cardinal to the Smithsonian successful 2021, which volition wage for a caller acquisition halfway expected to carnivore his sanction and renovations to its National Air and Space Museum. Bezos aboriginal hosted a backstage VIP black-tie meal earlier the National Portrait Gallery yearly gala, inviting much than 3 twelve guests including Dolly Parton and erstwhile Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But his immense location successful Washington’s tony Kalorama neighborhood, walking region from erstwhile President Barack Obama’s, is mostly quiet. Neighbors accidental they’ve rarely, if ever, seen Bezos there.

“He doesn’t unrecorded here,” Allbritton said.

In 2021, Amazon announced Bezos was stepping down arsenic CEO. Even erstwhile helium was starring the company, he’d mostly near Washington lobbying to Jay Carney, Amazon’s argumentation main and a erstwhile White House property secretary, and different staff, according to 2 erstwhile Amazon employees.

And portion Amazon successful 2018 announced with large fanfare that it would signifier a 2nd office successful Arlington, Virginia, conscionable crossed the Potomac River from Washington, the institution paused improvement determination past year.

Bezos started spending much clip connected Blue Origin, which has operations successful Texas and Florida, taking the company’s archetypal crewed travel to abstraction successful July 2021.

As Bezos stayed away, Musk grew his concern empire and links to Washington. He has regularly visited elder lawmakers to property his views connected AI, electrical vehicles, planetary outer communications and abstraction travel.

Musk’s SpaceX is light-years up of Blue Origin and has developed into an important national contractor, providing proscription for NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

In his idiosyncratic life, Bezos has been progressively busy. He projected to Sánchez past year, and a Vogue diagnostic successful November kicked disconnected with his margarita-making skills. “This is my backup career,” helium joked.

Days before, Bezos had said successful an Instagram station that aft surviving successful Seattle for years, helium would beryllium moving to Miami. He went connected a existent property spending spree, buying 3 properties successful Indian Creek, an land assemblage wherever homeowners reportedly see Ivanka Trump and Tom Brady.

Bezos said helium wanted to beryllium adjacent Blue Origin’s operations successful Florida’s Cape Canaveral. “I privation to beryllium adjacent to my parents,” helium added, “and Lauren and I emotion Miami.”

This nonfiction primitively appeared successful The New York Times.