‘I predict one day Amazon will fail’: Jeff Bezos once warned his company might only last 30 years. At 31, it’s the biggest company in the world

(Credit: Nicolò Campo—LightRocket/Getty Images)

Amazon is now the world’s biggest company, but its founder once doubted the business would survive.

“Amazon is not too big to fail,” then-CEO Jeff Bezos reportedly told employees in a 2018 all-hands meeting. “In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their life spans tend to be 30-plus years, not a 100-plus years.”