- This week Jeff Bezos sold 12 million shares of Amazon stock, netting about $2 billion.
- It’s Bezos’ first major sale of stock in the company since 2021.
- The move puts Bezos’ within reach of overtaking Elon Musk as the world’s richest man.
This week, Jeff Bezos made a strategic move by selling 12 million shares of Amazon stock, which earned him approximately $2 billion. This transaction could potentially propel him back into the position of being the “world’s richest man.”
The recent sale aligns with the company’s previously announced plan in February for Bezos to sell 50 million shares by year-end, valued around $8.5 billion. Bezos held 988 million shares, nearly 10% of Amazon, as of December, as per the company’s 2023 proxy statement, with his entire stake worth approximately $168 billion.
Amazon’s stock surge this year resulted in a $22.6 billion increase in the founder and executive chairman’s estimated wealth, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This uptick propelled Bezos to the second position on the list of the world’s wealthiest individuals, with a net worth of $200 billion at the time of reporting.
While Bezos’ exact motive for selling shares remains unclear, the substantial sale narrows the wealth gap between him and Elon Musk, positioning Bezos to potentially surpass the Tesla CEO in the rankings of the world’s richest individuals.
As of this week’s sale of Amazon stock, Bezos trailed Musk’s $200 billion fortune by only $5 billion, making the title of #1 billionaire seemingly within grasp. However, in the days following, Musk’s net worth surged to $209 billion according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, intensifying the race for Bezos to catch up.
Bezos initially claimed the title of the richest person in the world in 2017, surpassing Bill Gates. Although the two traded positions throughout the year, Bezos maintained the title of the wealthiest individual from 2018 to 2021, as per Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires. However, Musk eventually overtook him.
This year, Bezos has experienced a significant increase in wealth, while Musk’s has declined by $29 billion. This decrease is attributed in part to a 27% drop in Tesla’s stock value, prompted by weaker-than-expected growth for the electric car company. Additionally, a Delaware judge’s ruling on January 30 voided Musk’s $55 billion compensation package at Tesla, further impacting his net worth.
According to Forbes’ latest billionaire ranking as of February 1st, Elon Musk holds the second spot, just behind Bernard Arnault, CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, with Jeff Bezos in third place. However, Bloomberg’s daily-updated list paints a different picture, placing Musk at the top with a fortune of $209 billion, closely followed by Bezos trailing by approximately $9 billion, and Arnault in third.
Musk’s wealth largely stems from his significant ownership of Tesla, with 411 million shares, roughly equating to 13% of the company, valued at around $73 billion. His investments in other ventures like SpaceX, The Boring Company, and X contribute to the rest of his wealth.
As for Bezos, representatives from Amazon have yet to comment on the matter to Business Insider. This recent stock sale isn’t Bezos’ first rodeo in offloading a substantial portion of his Amazon shares, although it’s the most significant since 2021. Back then, as he prepared to step down as CEO, Bezos sold $2.5 billion worth of shares.
In 2020, he divested $1.8 billion following a surge in Amazon’s stock after the company’s 2019 full-year earnings call, and in 2019, he unloaded approximately $2.8 billion worth of the company’s stock.