Bezos unloads $938 million of Amazon stock in year’s first sale
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The sale coincided with Mr Jeff Bezos' star-studded wedding to Ms Lauren Sanchez in Venice.
PHOTO: AFP
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San Francisco – Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos sold 3.3 million of the company’s shares in recent days, netting US$736.7 million (S$938 million).
The sale, which coincided with his star-studded wedding to former journalist Lauren Sanchez in Venice, Italy, is part of a 10b5-1 trading plan Mr Bezos adopted in March for up to 25 million shares.
Since then, Amazon’s stock price has climbed more than 8 per cent alongside a broader rally in US markets.
Mr Bezos, 61, is the third-richest man in the world with a US$241.4 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
He routinely uses 10b5-1 trading plans, which allow company insiders to offload shares at predetermined times.
He sold 75 million shares in 2024 for a total of US$13.6 billion through such plans.
Since 2002, Mr Bezos has unloaded Amazon shares worth about US$44 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
He is a much less frequent buyer of the stock, making his first purchase in 2023 according to records going back to 2002 – a single share for US$114.77.
Mr Bezos often sells his Amazon shares to fund Blue Origin, the space company he started in 2000.
In January, it debuted its new flagship rocket and successfully reached orbit after years in development, but a month later, it cut about 10 per cent of its workforce in surprise layoffs as it looked to cut costs.
The stock sales mark Mr Bezos’ first for 2025, but he has given away nearly 930,000 shares to non-profits in 2025.
In March, the billionaire reported gifting shares worth around US$60 million at the time to undisclosed charities.
In May, he gifted another bundle of shares worth roughly US$125 million, followed by another US$5 million in June.
Mr Bezos typically gives to support his Bezos Earth Fund, which is a US$10 billion commitment to fight climate change, and the Bezos Day One Fund, a US$2 billion philanthropic initiative focused on homelessness.
In previous years, he has also given out a US$100 million “Bezos Courage & Civility Award” to support philanthropists like country music star Dolly Parton and political analyst Van Jones. BLOOMBERG
