Bezos Sells $5.7 Billion Amazon Shares

Jeff Bezos had to pay for his wedding to Lauren Sanchez which cost as much as $50 million. Since he has sold $5.7 billion in Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares, he will have some extra money. According to the Bloomberg Billionaire list, he has a net worth of $252 billion, which makes him the third richest person in the world.

The current sale is part of a trading plan he set up early this year. According to Bloomberg, this sale is part of a pattern that has brought him $50 billion since 2022. The news service reports, “he still owns about 884 million shares or more than 8% of the company.”

Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO in July of 2021. He turned that job over to longtime Amazon executive Andy Jassy. Bezos remains as Executive Chairman. He had held the CEO jobs since 1994. If he is active at Amazon, it is mostly behind the scenes.

Bezos recent sales have come at a fortunate time. Amazon’s stock is up 28% in the last year, while the S&P 500 is only 18% higher. Amazon is now the fourth most valuable company in the world with a market cap of $2.5 trillion.

Amazon’s growth path, most of which Bezos engineered, was from an online bookstore to the largest e-commerce business in the world (perhaps except for China.). In 2002, he started Amazon Web Services (AWS) which is now the world’s largest cloud computing company. AWS currently makes more money than the e-commerce business does. Amazon had operating income of $17.1 billion in the most recently reported quarter. AWS operating income was $11.5 billion.

As is the case with every large tech company in the world, Amazon’s future success depends on its success in AI. Amazon says it will invest $100 billion in AI infrastructures in 2025. However, it needs to do at least as well as direct competitors Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and OpenAI.

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