Jeff Bezos is stepping down as Amazon CEO after 26 years at the helm. Here are some of his headline-making moments, from launching a space company to blocking a blackmail attempt.

Although his boss at the firm tried to persuade Bezos to stay, he was already determined to start his own company — he felt he'd rather try and fail at a startup than never try at all, according to Brad Stone's book, "The Everything Store."

Bezos and his then wife, MacKenzie, drove from Texas to Seattle and set up shop in a garage. Amazon was born.

In Amazon's S-1 filing, it described itself as "the leading online retailer of books" and employed just 256 people.

The IPO raised $54 million, giving Amazon a valuation of $438 million.

In a 2018 interview with Axel Springer, Bezos said that Blue Origin is his "most important work," even more important than Amazon, because he doesn't want to end up with "a civilization of stasis."

Blue Origin builds reusable rockets with the goal of making space travel cheaper and more accessible. Bezos said in the letter announcing he was stepping down as Amazon CEO that he plans to devote more time to Blue Origin going forward.

AWS hit over $12 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020, while Amazon's total revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time in Q4, spurred by the success of Prime Day, Amazon's annual shopping holiday for Prime members.

Bezos told Business Insider in a 2014 interview that while he didn't know anything about the newspaper business, "I did know something about the internet. That, combined with the financial runway that I can provide, is the reason why I bought The Post."

Since then, Bezos has taken a hands-on approach to the business and technology sides of the Post, spearheading a turnaround for the nearly 150-year-old publication.

Rezaian served as The Post's bureau chief in Tehran before being imprisoned in 2014 on espionage charges. Rezaian was freed 18 months later after a historic prisoner exchange between the US and Iran.

He flew to an American military hospital in Germany where Bezos met him before flying Rezaian and his family back to the US on his private jet.

Since then, Bezos wealth has surged roughly $100 billion — Bloomberg pegs his current net worth at $193 billion, making him the world's second-richest person after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Bezos had attended the annual Allen & Company Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, prior to 2017, but his appearance that year, soon after he became the world's richest person, became an internet sensation.

Bezos looked noticeably muscular, and his stylish vest and designer sunglasses were a major change from his previous, more bookish appearance. The photo instantly became a meme as people called out how much his look had changed since the early days of Amazon.

In September 2017, Amazon launched its nationwide search for HQ2, creating a bidding war among dozens of North American cities to provide the best incentives to the ecommerce giant.

Amazon's focus on raking in those incentives was inspired by Elon Musk's success in Nevada, according to Bloomberg. Musk launched a competition in 2014 for Tesla's Gigafactory, a battery plant he promised would create thousands of jobs. (Nevada ultimately won the plant after pledging a record $1.3 billion in incentives.)

Amazon ultimately selected Queens, New York, and Arlington, Virginia, as the winners for HQ2, but the deal in New York fell apart after outcry from local politicians.

Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, announced in January 2019 that they were divorcing. Hours later, the National Enquirer and Page Six reported that Bezos had been dating TV host and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez.

The Enquirer said it had conducted a months-long investigation into Bezos and Sanchez's relationship and had obtained texts and explicit photos the couple had sent to each other.

One month later, Bezos dropped a bombshell of his own: an explosive blog post titled "No thank you, Mr. Pecker," in which he accused Pecker and AMI of trying to blackmail him with the publication of his explicit photos.

"Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten," Bezos wrote.

Bezos began publicly shaming customers who sent racist emails about his and Amazon's support — in one Instagram post, he posted a screenshot of a customer email and described the man as "the kind of customer I'm happy to lose."

Bezos said he'd received a number of "sickening but not surprising" messages, but said that "this sort of hate shouldn't be allowed to hide in the shadows."

Bezos testified for the first time alongside other major tech CEOs, including Google's Sundar Pichai, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple's Tim Cook.

But he was able to dodge most of the questions from lawmakers over antitrust concerns, allowing him to stay out of the spotlight at a time when Amazon is facing heavy scrutiny.

Read more: America wanted its first unfiltered look at Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person. The Amazon CEO used caution and skill to stay out of the spotlight.

In a letter to Amazon employees, Bezos announced he would transition to the executive-chairman role and focus on "new products and early initiatives."

"Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it's consuming," Bezos wrote. "When you have a responsibility like that, it's hard to put attention on anything else."

Bezos said that while he would still be involved in important initiatives at Amazon, he planned to spend more time on philanthropy — including the Bezos Earth Fund and his Day One Fund — as well as his two other major endeavors: The Washington Post and Blue Origin.