'Jeff Bezos Would Be No. 1' — Warren Buffett Says Some People You Shouldn't Even Try to Beat, Praises Him As 'Most Remarkable Business Person'

Warren Buffett has spent decades sizing up the world's sharpest business minds. He's outlasted rivals, spotted winners early, and—let's be honest—become a billionaire many times over doing it. But even Buffett knows when it's time to tip his hat.

And for him, nobody earns that gesture quite like Jeff Bezos.

Buffett has openly admired fellow top-ranking billionaire Bezos for years. While he didn't invest in Amazon early—something he's joked about regretting—Buffett never underestimated Bezos' rare genius.

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In a 2016 CNBC interview, Buffett said, "There are certain people you do not want to try to beat at their own game and certainly Jeff Bezos would be No. 1."

What set Bezos apart? It wasn't a shiny new invention or some scientific breakthrough. "It isn't that [Bezos has] gotten some breakthrough or found some molecule or come up with some incredible invention," Buffett explained. Instead, Bezos had "shown an amazing talent" by taking everyday things people already bought and "figuring out a way to make people happier buying those products."

"That's remarkable," Buffett added.

By 2017, Buffett's admiration only deepened. Speaking again to CNBC, he called Bezos "the most remarkable business person of our age." 

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What amazed him most was Bezos' ability to dominate two wildly different industries at once: online retail and cloud computing. "I've never seen a guy succeed in two businesses almost simultaneously that are really quite divergent in terms of customers and all the operations," Buffett said. "I can't think of another example like it."

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Buffett even admitted he underestimated Amazon's potential. "I was too dumb to realize what was going to happen," he said, calling himself out for missing the early boat. "I underestimated the brilliance and the execution."

Eventually, Berkshire Hathaway got on board. The company purchased its first Amazon shares in early 2019. As of May 2025, Berkshire holds about 10 million Amazon shares—worth roughly $2.19 billion. 

Buffett clarified that the buy wasn't his idea but came from one of Berkshire's younger investment managers, a sign of the firm's evolving approach toward growth and tech stocks.

So while Buffett may have arrived late to Amazon's meteoric rise, he backed the man he calls unbeatable—and the most remarkable business mind of his time.

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