Bezos to sell $5 billion of Amazon as shares hit record high

Jeff Bezos disclosed a plan to unload 25 million additional shares of Amazon.com Inc. worth $5 billion on the day the stock hit a fresh record.

The notice was filed after the market closed Tuesday, though sales could also take place as early as that day, according to the filing.

Bezos sold shares worth about $8.5 billion over nine trading days in February – the first time he disposed of company stock since 2021. The additional sales would bring his total this year to roughly $13.5 billion, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Bezos would still hold nearly 912 million shares, or about 8.8% of Amazon, following the latest sale. He’s the world’s second-richest person with a net worth of $221.6 billion, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index, and also owns space-exploration company Blue Origin and the Washington Post.

Amazon’s shares closed Tuesday at $200, the highest since its 1997 listing. The company’s stock has soared 32% this year with its cloud business expected to benefit from the growth of generative AI technology. By Wednesdays, the stocks slightly dipped to $197.59.

Bezos, 60, announced in November that he was moving to Miami from the Seattle area. Washington state instituted a 7% capital gains tax in 2022 – something Florida doesn’t have – meaning Bezos’s relocation is likely saving him hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.