Jeff Bezos sells $737 million in Amazon shares, continues charitable giving in 2025
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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has offloaded 3.3 million shares of Amazon.com Inc. in recent days, generating $736.7 million in proceeds.
These transactions mark his first stock sales of 2025 and come as part of a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan initiated in March, allowing him to sell up to 25 million shares over time.
The timing of the sale coincided with Bezos' high-profile wedding to Lauren Sanchez in Venice.
Since the adoption of the plan, Amazon’s stock has seen an 8% uptick, riding a broader wave of growth in U.S. equity markets.
Amazon has not yet commented on the recent sales.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos, 61, currently holds a net worth of $241.4 billion, ranking him as the third-richest individual globally. He has long utilised 10b5-1 trading arrangements to manage his share sales in a structured way. In 2023 alone, he sold 75 million shares worth $13.6 billion under similar plans.
Since 2002, Bezos has sold roughly $44 billion worth of Amazon stock, per Bloomberg data. He rarely buys shares, with only one recorded purchase—a single share for $114.77—in the past two decades.
Bezos is known to channel much of the capital from his stock sales into his aerospace venture, Blue Origin, which recently launched its new flagship rocket into orbit. However, despite the successful debut, the company implemented significant layoffs earlier this year, cutting around 10% of its staff to reduce operational costs.
Alongside his sales, Bezos has been active in philanthropy this year, donating close to 930,000 Amazon shares to nonprofits. In March, he gifted stock valued at around $60 million, followed by an additional $125 million in May and $5 million in June.
These charitable contributions typically support the Bezos Earth Fund, a $10 billion climate-focused initiative, and the Bezos Day One Fund, which tackles homelessness and supports early childhood education. In past years, he also launched the Bezos Courage & Civility Award, a $100 million grant for changemakers like Dolly Parton and Van Jones.
