(Bloomberg) — Jeff Bezos unveiled a plan to sell an additional 25 million shares of Amazon.com Inc., worth $5 billion, on the day the stock hit a new record high.
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The notice was filed after the market closed Tuesday, although sales could also take place as early as that day, according to the filing.
Bezos sold about $8.5 billion worth of stock over nine trading days in February — the first time he has offloaded shares of the company since 2021. The additional sales would bring his total this year to about $13.5 billion, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
After the latest sale, Jeff Bezos would still own about 912 million shares, or about 8.8% of Amazon. He is the second-richest person in the world with a net worth of $221.6 billion, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index, and also owns space exploration company Blue Origin and The Washington Post.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the most recent sales.
Amazon shares closed Tuesday at $200, their highest level since it went public in 1997. The company’s stock has climbed 32% this year as its cloud business is expected to benefit from growth in generative artificial intelligence technology.
In November, Bezos, 60, announced he was moving from Seattle to Miami. Washington state has a 7% capital gains tax in 2022, while Florida does not, meaning Bezos’ move will likely save him hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.
(Updated with company response in fifth paragraph.)
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