SEATTLE, WA – Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has recently completed the sale of 14 million shares of Amazon.com Inc. The shares were sold for approximately $2.4 billion, well within the nine trading days timeframe that Bezos had initially planned to sell up to 50 million shares.
The most recent transaction, which concluded on Tuesday, saw Bezos cash out a total of $8.5 billion over three trading days, as revealed by a regulatory filing. Before this recent selling spree, Bezos had not disposed of any company stock since 2021. Bezos, the third-richest person in the world, also owns the space exploration company Blue Origin and the Washington Post, but he has not disclosed how he plans to use the proceeds from the sale.
The move to Miami from the Seattle region, announced by Bezos on November 2, has raised eyebrows, as Washington state implemented a 7% capital gains tax in 2022, a tax Florida does not have. This relocation is expected to save Bezos hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos’ net worth currently stands at $191.3 billion.
Both Amazon and Bezos’s spokespersons have not yet responded to requests for comments. Although this move has led to speculation and a plethora of questions, Bezos has remained tight-lipped about his future plans and how the proceeds from the stock sales will be utilized.