Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has informed the SEC of plans to sell up to 15 million shares of the company, equivalent to approximately $4.16 billion at the last closing price.
The announcement comes after the company broke the $3 trillion market value mark for the first time on Monday (3), after its second-quarter earnings exceeded market expectations. In the wake of the news about Bezos' sale, however, Amazon shares closed down 2.32% on Tuesday (4).
On social media platform X, CNBC commentator Jim Cramer called the sale a "buzzkill." "I can't blame Bezos for selling $4 billion in stock... but what a buzzkill," the post reads.
The sale must occur within the framework of a pre-established trading plan (Rule 10b5-1), adopted by Bezos in November 2025. The mechanism shields executives and insiders from accusations of insider trading by automating sales according to pre-defined price, volume, and time conditions.
Despite the billion-dollar value, the sale is modest compared to the company's shareholder base: the 15 million shares to be sold represent only 0.14% of the total 10,786,313,572 shares in circulation reported in the document filed with the SEC.
Bezos has been steadily reducing his stake in Amazon over the past few years. In June 2025, he sold 25 million shares for approximately US$5.43 billion.
Bezos has publicly stated that he sells approximately $1 billion a year in Amazon stock to fund Blue Origin, his space company. This takes on added context now: Blue Origin is raising external capital for the first time— $10 billion at a pre-money valuation of $130 billion—with $2 billion coming from Bezos himself.
The company also suffered a recent setback: the New Glenn rocket exploded during a test on May 28, with repairs estimated at over US$1 billion.
The document also states, in addition to the announced sale, that Bezos donated 220,200 shares to philanthropic organizations on May 4th. Even after the new sale, Bezos is expected to remain Amazon's largest individual shareholder.
Until the beginning of May — the date of the last official document regarding his shareholding — he directly held approximately 8.17% of the total outstanding shares, ahead of any other executive or board member. At the time of the company's IPO in 1997, Bezos held more than 40% of the shares.
Currently, after Bezos, the asset management firms BlackRock and Vanguard are the largest shareholders of Amazon, with 6.8% of the shares each. These positions, unlike Bezos' stake, mainly reflect index funds and ETFs.
In 2021, Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon, being succeeded by Andy Jassy, but remains as chairman of the company's executive board.
