Jeff Bezos sells Amazon shares worth $2 billion, inches closer to World's Richest Person title

Jeff Bezos Amazon share sale: Amazon.com Inc., founder Jeff Bezos has divested approximately $2 billion worth of the company's shares. This development comes amid a surge in the share price of Amazon. In the past one month, Amazon shares have surged 12.42 per cent outperforming bechmark Nasdaq which rose close to 7 per cent during the same period. With a net worth of $200 billion, Bezos is currently the second richest person in the world, only behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk who has a real-time net worth of $209 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

According to filings released by Amazon, Bezos executed the sale of approximately 12 million shares of the online retail and cloud services giant between Wednesday and Thursday. This marks the first time since 2021 that Bezos has opted to offload Amazon shares, signalling a strategic shift in his investment strategy.

Bezos's decision to sell shares follows an announcement made by Amazon on February 2, revealing his intentions to sell as many as 50 million shares of the company over the course of the next 12 months. Notably, his fortune has surged by $22.6 billion since the start of the year, further solidifying his position among the world's wealthiest individuals.

While Bezos has a history of selling Amazon shares, having divested over $30 billion worth of stock since records dating back to 2002, his recent sales have primarily been attributed to philanthropic endeavors. In November, Bezos donated shares valued at approximately $230 million to various nonprofit organisations.

(With Reuters inputs.)