Jeff Bezos sells another $2.4bn of Amazon stock

Jeff Bezos sold $2.4bn of Amazon.com stock, bringing the amount he has unloaded this week to almost $5bn.

Bezos sold 739,032 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings, days after he disposed of an identical amount. He said this week in a filing that he plans to sell as many as 2-million shares. The world’s richest person continues to hold more than 10percent of Amazon, the primary source of his $192.1bn fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

In the 15 years after Amazon went public in 1997, Bezos sold about a fifth of the online retailer for roughly $2bn. The value of his stake has grown to such an extent in recent years that he can now sell relatively small amounts for billions of dollars. In 2020 he disposed of stock worth more than $10bn.

Amazon rallied 76percent in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic encouraged people to use online shopping. The stock is up 1.1percent this year.

The Amazon founder has used equity sales to fund rocket company Blue Origin, while he’s committed $10bn to the “Bezos Earth Fund” to help counter the effects of climate change.Bezos is also due to take delivery of a superyacht being built in the Netherlands that will be 127m long, span several decks and sport three enormous masts. The biggest hit to Bezos’s wealth came after his divorce from MacKenzie Scott, who received a 4percent stake in Amazon as part of the split.