Amazon at a peak, Bezos heads to the bank: A massive $4.1 billion divestment
Following strong quarterly results, founder Jeff Bezos has filed a plan to sell 15 million shares of Amazon. Bezos remains the company's largest private shareholder with an 8% stake, as Amazon's market capitalization recently surpassed the $3 trillion threshold.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has filed a plan to sell approximately 15 million shares of the company, with an estimated value of about $4.1 billion. The move comes after Amazon's stock surged to an all-time high following strong financial reports, pushing the company's market value to over $3 trillion.
According to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the sale is being conducted as part of a pre-planned trading program adopted on November 14, 2025.
Yesterday, just over two years after reaching a market value of $2 trillion, Amazon crossed the $3 trillion mark. It joined Nvidia, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Apple, becoming the fifth company ever to reach this valuation.
Stock at peak levels
The sale plan was published just days after Amazon released quarterly reports that were stronger than expected. The company showed particularly good results in the second quarter, mainly due to accelerated growth in cloud computing (AWS), which bolstered investor confidence that the company's massive investments in artificial intelligence are beginning to generate significant business demand.
Since the beginning of the year, Amazon's stock has risen by about 23%, more than double the 11% increase in the S&P 500 index. Despite a decline in pre-market trading, the stock is still trading near the peak levels it reached after the reports were published.
According to Form 144 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jeff Bezos plans to sell 15 million Amazon shares with a total value of about $4.07 billion, based on the stock's closing price on Monday.
The report indicates that these are founder shares that Bezos received when he founded Amazon in 1994. Additionally, the document shows that in May, Bezos donated 220,200 shares to associations and non-profit organizations. According to the report, it is possible that these entities sold the shares during the three months preceding the filing of the form.
According to Forbes, even after the planned sale, Jeff Bezos remains the largest private shareholder in Amazon. He holds about 8% of the company's shares, after transferring about 4% of its shares to his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, as part of their 2019 divorce settlement.
In recent years, Bezos has regularly executed stock sales, usually through pre-established trading plans (Rule 10b5-1), while continuing to be one of the company's largest shareholders. The value of his stake in Amazon is estimated by Forbes at about $280 billion, which constitutes the bulk of his wealth.
