Jeff Bezos unloads $737 million of Amazon stock in year's first sale

By Biz Carson

 

Jeff Bezos sold 3.3 million Amazon.com Inc. shares in recent days, netting $736.7 million.

 

The sale, which coincided with his star-studded wedding to Lauren Sanchez in Venice, is part of a 10b5-1 trading plan 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.

 

Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

 

Bezos, 61, is the third-richest man in the world with a $241.4 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He routinely uses 10b5-1 trading plans, selling 75 million shares last year for a total of $13.6 billion through the arrangements, which allow company insiders to offload shares at predetermined times. 

 

Since 2002, Bezos has unloaded Amazon shares worth about $44 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. He’s a much less frequent buyer of the stock, making his first purchase two years ago in records going back to 2002 — a single share for $114.77.

 

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 looks to cut costs. 

 

The stock sales mark Bezos’ first for the year, but he has given away nearly 930,000 shares to nonprofits in 2025. In March, Bezos reported gifting shares worth around $60 million at the time to undisclosed charities. In May, he gifted another bundle of shares worth roughly $125 million, followed by another $5 million in June.

 

Bezos typically gives to support his Bezos Earth Fund, which is a $10 billion commitment to fight climate change, and the Bezos Day One Fund, a $2 billion philanthropic initiative focused on homelessness. In previous years, he has also given out a $100 million “Bezos Courage & Civility Award” to support philanthropists like Dolly Parton and Van Jones.