Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has sold nearly $2 billion worth of Amazon stock this week, it has been revealed.
According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission compiled by OpenInsider, Bezos sold roughly $684 million worth of Amazon shares on Tuesday, after unloading about $1.27 billion worth of stock on Monday.
This makes a grand total of about $1.95 billion worth of Amazon shares that Bezos has sold over this week, and comes after Amazon posted record financial results last month.
It is no surprise that the world’s richest man has opted to sell off a chunk of Amazon shares, as he has done so yearly for a while now.
Bezos has previously admitted he sells about $1bn in Amazon stock per year to fund his Blue Origin space firm.
In 2017 for example he offloaded $1 billion worth of stock.
But of late he has been increasing the amount of Amazon shares sell-offs.
Last February for example he reportedly sold $4.1 billion worth of shares, and then in November 2020 he sold more than $3 billion worth of Amazon shares.
Bezos has had to invest heavily in some of his projects.
In 2013 for example he purchased the Washington Post newspaper, known for its investigative journalism, out of his own personal fortune. At the time he paid $250m for the newspaper.
Bezos has also made previous investments in other projects such as a 10,000-year clock and the recovery of moon-mission booster rockets from the ocean floor.
He also now has his Day One Fund that provides education in low-income communities and combat homelessness.
But it is Blue Origin that is burning through the most cash.
The Blue Origin mission is to build “a road to space with our reusable launch vehicles,” but initially the firm aims to send tourists on brief flights into suborbital space where they can experience weightlessness and gain a view of the Earth.
In February this year, Bezos announced he would step down from leading Amazon in the third quarter, and will hand over the CEO reins to AWS CEO Andy Jassy.
Bezos will assume the role of executive chairman on Amazon’s board.
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