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How Much Would $10,000 Invested in Amazon Stock 20 Years Ago Be Worth Today?

By U.S. News & World Report

Long-term Amazon.com Inc. (ticker: AMZN) investors have come to expect outperformance over the past 20 years. Since 2006, Amazon’s market capitalization has skyrocketed from tens of billions of dollars to more than $2.7 trillion, making Amazon one of the most valuable companies in the entire market.

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Shares of the leading online marketplace and cloud services provider hit fresh all-time highs in 2026, further vindicating patient long-term investors in the company.

Amazon’s 20-Year Journey

Amazon was founded as an online bookstore by Jeff Bezos back in 1994, but the company has made several major pivots throughout its history. The company went public at a valuation of $300 million in 1997.

By 2003, Amazon had expanded its online marketplace beyond books to music, clothing and other goods sold by third parties.

Amazon launched its Amazon Prime loyalty program in 2005 — a membership that cost $79 annually and included free two-day shipping on any Amazon order. Prime has been a tremendous success for Amazon over the past 20 years, and there are now more than 200 million global Prime members. Since then, Amazon has been able to ratchet up its membership fees; a Prime membership now costs $139 annually or $14.99 per month.

In 2006, Amazon rolled out Amazon Unbox, a subscription video streaming and rental service later rebranded as Prime Video.

The following year, the company launched its Kindle electronic reading device, and in 2008 it acquired leading audiobooks company Audible.

In 2014, Amazon acquired video game streaming platform Twitch and launched the Amazon Echo smart speaker featuring its Alexa virtual assistant.

Amazon has also expanded beyond the digital world. The company opened its first physical store in 2015 and acquired grocery chain Whole Foods in 2017.

In 2015, Amazon even started its own annual shopping holiday, Amazon Prime Day.

Amazon has achieved remarkable success over the years despite some misses along the way. The company released its Fire phone in 2014, but it discontinued the project a year later after the Fire flopped.

The biggest move Amazon made in the past 20 years was the launch of its Amazon Web Services cloud computing business back in 2006. In the nearly two decades since, AWS has been one of Amazon’s largest growth drivers. In the first quarter of 2026, AWS alone brought in $37.6 billion in revenue, representing a run rate of about $150 billion annually.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos resigned as Amazon’s CEO in July 2021 and was replaced by AWS chief executive Andy Jassy. The new CEO’s tenure got off to a rocky start, with the stock tumbling 35.3% during his first 12 months at the helm.

Since then, things have gone far more smoothly, with the stock up a cool 130% from July 2022. In 2022, Amazon also executed a 20-for-1 stock split, its only stock split in the past 20 years.

[Read: 8 Best Upcoming IPOs in 2026]

Amazon Performance

Amazon’s evolution and innovation have helped the company grow its revenue by almost an 80-fold over the past two decades. Analysts expect full-year 2026 revenue of more than $822 billion, a figure more than 76 times greater than its 2006 revenue of $10.71 billion.

One trick to Amazon’s success has been its ability to ace the “marshmallow test,” delaying short-term profits for larger, long-term opportunities. The results of pursuing that strategy, which can occasionally be painful for shareholders in the short term, speak for themselves.

Over the past 20 years through June 1, 2026, Amazon shares have generated a total return of 14,829% compared to a 498% total return for the S&P 500 during that stretch. Those gains translate to a 28.4% compound annual growth rate for Amazon compared to a 9.4% CAGR for the S&P 500 in that time.

As a result, $10,000 in AMZN stock purchased 20 years ago would now be worth $1.49 million. A $10,000 investment in the S&P 500 over the same period, however, would amount to $59,838.

Analyst Outlook

Even after those extremely impressive long-term returns, many Wall Street analysts remain bullish on Amazon’s outlook. Among the 67 analysts covering the stock, Amazon has 62 “buy” or “strong buy” analyst ratings, and just five “hold” ratings. The average analyst price target for AMZN stock is $312.79, suggesting 19.7% upside from its June 1 closing price over the next 12 months.

As always, investors should do their own research and triangulate different market perspectives to develop their own outlook on shares. While long-term shareholders have been amply rewarded, it’s unlikely returns over the next 20 years will be quite as strong. The stock doesn’t have the compelling entry point that it did in 2022, but new investors will still be buying into a strong company with no end in sight to its dominance in online retail and cloud computing.

[Read: Artificial Intelligence Stocks: The 10 Best AI Companies.]

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How Much Would $10,000 Invested in Amazon Stock 20 Years Ago Be Worth Today? originally appeared on usnews.com

Update 06/02/26: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.

A young mother’s killing went unsolved for nearly 40 years. Then the phone rang

By CNN
(CNN) — Melissa “Missy” Taylor Ellison’s killing remained a mystery for decades after she was found dead in her bedroom and her 13-month-old daughter was left crying in the living room.For years, Casie Ellison said she felt like she had to shrink herself and bury her feelings about the death of her mother.About 25 years after her mother was killed, those emotions were brought out when Casie realized her own daughter was now the same age she was when her mother died.“It just took me understanding that this is a little Casie,” she said. “I was seeing myself.”On July 8, more than 38 years after her mother’s killing in Jacksonville, Florida, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a man wanting to come forward with information on a cold case.Gary Glowacz, a 70-year-old man from Middleburg, Florida, told a Clay County sergeant he wanted to “set things straight” on the death of 20-year-old Melissa Ellison, saying he had hit her with a log in search of money during a burglary, according to his arrest report.Glowacz told Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit detectives that in March he came across an article detailing Melissa Ellison’s case and realized he was responsible for her death, according to his arrest report.Glowacz was charged with second-degree murder and armed burglary with assault or battery, according to charging documents. His attorney and the district attorney declined to comment.He’s being held without bond in the Duval County Jail, and his next court appearance is set for Thursday.No arrests were made during the initial investigation in connection with Melissa Ellison’s killing, according to the arrest report.The night of her deathOn December 28, 1987, Melissa Ellison, who was known as Missy Taylor by her family and friends, was found dead in her bedroom by her two roommates, the arrest report says.The medical examiner’s office ruled the manner of death as a homicide and the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head at the time of the killing, according to the arrest report.Glowacz told detectives he was looking for money or items to sell to buy drugs, according to the arrest report detailing their interview with him. Glowacz lived only half a mile away from the home Melissa Ellison was living in, according to law enforcement databases. He was arrested on suspicion of a separate burglary the same day she was found dead, the arrest report says.Glowacz, who was 31 at the time, breached the home through a window and made his way into Melissa Ellison’s bedroom, where he found her lying on the bed with her daughter Casie, according to the arrest report. Using a log he found in the house, he struck her one time on the head by her neck, he told detectives. He then picked Casie up, placed her on the couch in the living room and went back into the bedroom to look for money under her mattress.In the arrest report, detectives noted Glowacz recounted details of the crime scene that were not released and were not included in the article he saw earlier this year.When asked why he was confessing to the killing decades later, he said that he was not aware the victim had died until he saw the article about the case.Casie Ellison said she was the first call detectives made that night after they arrested Glowacz.“It felt exactly how I was hoping that it would feel every time I imagined that it would be possible,” Casie Ellison said.Casie Ellison’s aunts Glenda Blandford and Sissy Bennett, who were 17 and 15 respectively at the time of their sister’s death, were the next two calls made.“I knew in my heart, I knew in the back of my mind that this is it. Something’s happened,” Bennett said of the moment she got the phone call.The case was unsolved for decadesBlandford and Bennett recount the heartache their family went through after their sister’s death. For years, their parents would chase any lead they could find, bringing it to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to investigate, but to no avail, they said.“I carried my mother so many times down to the sheriff’s office. I watched everything that she went through, and I had to be the stronger one because … I had to be there for her while my dad continued to work,” Blandford said. “And I watched every disappointment, I watched every ounce of hope.”In 2019, their mother, Catherine Taylor, died not knowing what happened the night her daughter Melissa was killed.A year earlier, a friend of Bennett’s submitted Melissa Ellison’s case to Project: Cold Case, a nonprofit that provides support to families of unsolved homicide victims. The organization created a site for her story with all the information the family had gathered over the years.In January 2026, six months before Glowacz confessed to the killing, Project: Cold Case and Ellison’s family were part of a news conference with First Coast Crime Stoppers.“Someone knows exactly what happened that night. Someone remembers a detail that has never been spoken,” Casie Ellison said at the January news conference. “Someone has lived with this knowledge for nearly four decades. And someone listening to this right now knows that this is about them.”The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office credited the January news conference for aiding in the investigation, adding that some information that came forward played a role in the recent arrest, it said in July.“While his arrest cannot fill the enormous void left in the hearts of Melissa Ellison’s loved ones, I hope that this arrest is another step in the healing process,” Sheriff T.K. Waters said in July.Remembering MissyAfter nearly 40 years of no answers, this arrest might seem like it would be a weight lifted off the family’s shoulders, but Blandford, Bennett and Casie Ellison say they don’t feel relief yet.Both Blandford and Bennett said there isn’t a day that goes by when they don’t think of their sister. When Blandford moved to the beach five years ago, she thought of Missy, who loved the beach. She’s memorialized in the purple “Reign” Jeep Wrangler Bennett purchased because of Missy’s favorite song, “Purple Rain” by Prince. She lives on through Casie Ellison, who has three children of her own now.The journey toward healing continues for the family, as they try to navigate the new feelings that come with the recent developments. For Casie Ellison, this case has been her whole life.“There was no ‘before the incident’ for me,” Casie Ellison said.For the family, the loss has extended beyond losing Missy. The family lost three other relatives after her death.“I don’t know if justice would ever be officially served,” Casie Ellison said. “There’s been so much loss just from the grief and the no answers of this being such a long process. I think maybe had it been sooner, especially when my grandma was alive, and she would have been able to see there be some type of wrap to this in her lifetime, it might be a different answer.”Before finding out about Glowacz’s arrest, the family was planning a remembrance party for Missy with all her loved ones. Blandford says the party is still planned, but with a renewed prayer.“We’re still praying for justice,” Blandford said. “(We) pray and beg that God sheds serious light on this case and gives guidance to the hands of all the detectives … and that this case gets its proper justice, because right now, we’re sitting on an arrest, not justice.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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