Jeff Bezos To Sell $5 Billion Amazon Share After Stocks Hit Record $200

Jeff Bezos filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that states he will sell 25 million shares of Amazon with a value close to $5 billion. The e-commerce giant is riding high on success, hitting a record high of $200 per share on Tuesday. The billionaire has already filed his plan to offload these shares by the end of 2025. 

Where Amazon is currently

Amazon has been on a roll this year as it successfully secured a $2 trillion market cap becoming only the 5th US company to achieve ever. Just 2 days ago, on July 2, 2024, the company’s stock price hit $200.43. Despite seeing a 1% dip just the next day, it’s still in a great position. 

Jeff Bezos’ big plan

Bezos, late Tuesday, filed a new 10b5-1 plan to effectuate his attempt to cash out 25 million shares. This plan will allow him to sell these shares by December next year. 

However, since around the end of last year, the founder of Amazon stated that he would be moving out of Seattle after 20 years, people think his move from Washington to Florida is due to Washington’s capital gains tax. 

A new tax law in Washington states that a person pays a 7% tax on capital gains on the sale of shares and bonds worth more than $262,000. Miami does not have such taxes and Bezos will reportedly save around a billion dollars from this move. 

Bezos’ on a selling spree

Although the billionaire has filed the notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission, there have been no reports that he has already started selling his shares. However, this will mark his second large sale as he sold 50 million “founder stocks” in February this year. 

Just to give you an idea of how much the company has progressed this year, he earned roughly $8.5 billion from the shares sold in February. The 1.1 million shares he sold at the end of May 2024 were listed at $117 only. After the newly announced sales are made, Jeff will still have around 912 million Amazon shares. 

Taking the tech giants head-on

Amazon has already seen a rise of more than 30% this year and their little gamble on Artificial Intelligence has paid off. The quarterly earnings are off the charts and this is a direct result of the high demand for AI. 

Amazon is still behind other tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia since they have already crossed the $3 trillion market cap. However, Bezos’ Blue Origins is halfway to its next big stem and if the project can topple Elon Musk’s SpaceX the playing field will be leveled for the Amazon Executive Chairperson.