Amazon’s executive chairman sold over $2 billion worth of shares in his first major stock sale since 2021.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sold about 12 million shares of the company last week, netting him approximately $2.04 billion from the planned stock sale, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission.
The stock sale occurred between February 7 and 8 and was completed in five separate block trades. The filing shows that the highest price at which shares were sold was $171.37, while the lowest price was $169.20.
The sale comes days after Bezos disclosed his plans to sell 50 million shares of Amazon by January 31, 2025.
Like many tech stocks, Amazon saw its share price skyrocket in 2023. Over the past 12 months, Amazon shares (NASDAQ: AMZN) rose about 96%, outperforming the benchmark S&P 500 index and propelling the mogul’s net worth even higher.
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index rates Bezos as the second richest person, with a net worth of nearly $200 billion, roughly $20 billion more than the same time last year.
If Bezos were to offload his remaining 38 million plan shares at an average price of $170.28, his net worth would rise by approximately $6.47 billion. Despite the greater net worth, Tesla CEO Elon Musk would still be ranked as the wealthiest person in the world.
In general, the two billionaires aren’t just competing to become the richest person in the world; they are also competing to become the premiere rocket company in America.
In 2021, Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon to become the company’s executive chairman. By stepping down, Bezos said he would have more time to focus on his Blue Origin project. Although Bezos is no longer Amazon’s CEO, the online retailer and cloud service firm continue to bring in record revenues each year.
