Amazon founder sells company shares and raises two billion euros

The Amazon founder is no longer at the helm of the company, but that doesn't stop him from continuing to add value. Jeff Bezos this week sold 12 million shares of Amazon stock, which, when doing the math at $174.45 per share, means cash proceeds of $2,088 million (2 billion euros).

The company, now led by Andy Jassy (founder of Amazon Web Services), had already revealed the former CEO's plans at the beginning of the month. On February 2, Amazon said that Bezos wants to sell up to 50 million shares of Amazon stock over the course of the year, in order to benefit from the rise in its stock price.

Last year, Amazon saw its titles rise by 78%, in addition to a 13% growth in the value of titles at the beginning of the year. At the current price, the value of the 50 million bonds is worth more than eight billion euros.

With this sale, Jeff Bezos rose to second place on Bloomberg's list of richest people, as his wealth rose to $200 billion, while he ranks third on Forbes' list (behind Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault).

This is the largest sale of Bezos shares since 2021. Despite the sale, the billionaire controls 9.4% of Amazon, being the largest shareholder in the e-commerce company. Vanguard and BlackRock, two of the largest investment funds, control 7.3% and 5.91%.

Since founding Amazon, Jeff Bezos has sold more than 28 billion euros of company stock. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, Bezos invested €18 billion in stocks, a high value due to the strong rally that hit technology stocks during the pandemic.

According to the international press, approximately 200 million euros from property sales were donated to non-profit organizations.