Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to sell £4bn worth of shares as stock hits an all-time high

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has outlined plans to sell £4billion worth of shares as the stock hits an all-time high.

In a filing late on Tuesday, the billionaire revealed he would offload another 25m shares.

The tycoon, who also owns The Washington Post newspaper, has not disclosed why he is selling the Amazon shares.

It came as the stock hit a new record of $200.43 during the trading session.

After the sale plan, Bezos would own about 912m Amazon shares, or 8.8 per cent of the group.

Bezos, who stepped down as chief executive in 2021, has been trimming his stake in the online retailer.

So far this year, he has offloaded shares worth an estimated £10.5billion.

This included selling an estimated £6.5billion worth of Amazon stock in February.

Bezos, 60, founded Amazon in 1994, growing it from an online bookshop to a global marketplace.

Amazon posted a set of upbeat first-quarter results in April as it cashes in on bumper sales and the artificial intelligence wave.

All this has sent shares up by over a third since the beginning of 2024.

Bezos has already given away shares worth around £190million as part of his charity efforts, most recently in 2022.

Since stepping back Bezos has been focusing on a space venture called Blue Origin.

In October, he said that he was moving to Miami from Seattle to be near his parents and Blue Origin’s operations. ‘Blue Origin needs to be much faster. And it’s one of the reasons that I left Amazon a couple of years ago,’ he said in December.

The venture also puts him at odds with tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been driving the space race with his company SpaceX.

Blue Origin launched a six-person crew to the edge of space in May.

Bezos is the world’s second-richest man, worth an estimated £168billion.

Musk is worth £195billion.

DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS

AJ Bell

AJ Bell

Easy investing and ready-made portfolios

Hargreaves Lansdown

Hargreaves Lansdown

Free fund dealing and investment ideas

interactive investor

interactive investor

Flat-fee investing from £4.99 per month

eToro

eToro

Share investing: 30+ million community

Trading 212

Trading 212

Free share dealing and no account fee

Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.

Compare the best investing account for you