Jeff Bezos sells over $1b worth of Amazon shares

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos unloaded more than 3.3 million shares of his company in a sale valued at roughly $736.7 million ($1.1 billion), according to a financial filing on Tuesday.

The stock sale is part of a previously arranged trading plan adopted by Bezos in March. Under that arrangement, Bezos plans to sell up to 25 million shares of Amazon over a period ending May 29, 2026.

Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 but remains chairman, has been selling stock in the company at a regular clip in recent years, though he’s still the largest individual shareholder.

He adopted a similar trading plan in February 2024 to sell up to 50 million shares of Amazon stock through late January of this year.

Bezos previously said he’d sell about $US1b ($1.5b) in Amazon stock each year to fund his space exploration company, Blue Origin.

He’s also donated shares to Day 1 Academies, his nonprofit that’s building a chain of Montessori-inspired preschools across several states.

The most recent stock sale comes after Bezos and Lauren Sanchez tied the knot last week in a lavish wedding in Venice.

The star-studded celebration, which took place over three days and sparked protests from some local residents, was estimated to cost around $US50m ($76m).

Bezos is ranked third in Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index with a net worth of about $US240b ($364.7). He’s behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk at $US363b ($551.6b) and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at $US260b ($395b).