Jeff Bezos offloads 12 million Amazon shares for $2 billion

Amazon.com Inc. executive chairman Jeff Bezos offloaded 12 million shares in the retail giant over two days last week for a cumulative sum of $2 billion, stock exchange filings showed on Friday.

The retail company had disclosed in another filing to the stock exchange earlier this month of Bezos’ plans to sell about 50 million shares in the company in the coming one year.

Bezos last sold his shares in the company in 2021, the same year that he stepped down as its chief executive.

As of 12 February, the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index listed Bezos as the second richest person in the world, behind Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.

The daily ranking of the world’s richest people lists Bezos’ total net worth at $200 billion, an increase of $22.6 billion in the past year.

Friday’s filing showed Bezos offloaded 11,997,698 shares and currently holds 976,254,119 shares, or about 9% stake, in the firm.