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Jeff Bezos is preparing to sell up to $4.75bn (£3.6bn) worth of Amazon stock over the next year, according to a regulatory filing made on Friday.
The technology company’s executive chair and former chief executive plans to offload up to 25m shares through a trading plan that ends on 29 May 2026.
This tranche is worth about $4.75bn, based on the closing price on Thursday. The divestment comes after Bezos sold $13.4bn of Amazon stock last year.
Bezos is the world’s second richest person, according to Bloomberg’s billionaire index, with an estimated total net worth of $212bn. Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, ranks first, with an estimated total net worth of $332bn.
The announcement came just hours after Amazon reported its first quarter earnings for 2025. Revenue rose by 9% in the period to $155.7bn, and profit came in at $17.1bn. Nevertheless, Amazon shares fell in after-hours trading amid concerns around how Donald Trump’s trade tariffs could affect the business.
Andy Jassy, the chief executive of Amazon, said it was “hard to tell with tariffs how they’re going to settle and when they’re going to settle” in a call with analysts, adding that there had “maybe never been a more important time” to have the broadest selection of items at the lowest possible prices.
Prices on Amazon’s online marketplace have started to rise since Trump announced new tariffs at the start of April, particularly on Chinese imports.
Last week the White House accused Amazon of committing a “hostile and political act” after a report suggested the company was planning to inform customers about how much Trump’s tariffs would cost them as they shopped.
Amazon has distanced itself from the report, saying the idea had been considered by Amazon Haul, a low-cost shopping hub within its group, but it had been rejected.
Bezos and Trump have had a mixed relationship. During Trump’s 2016 campaign, the Amazon founder argued some of Trump’s rhetoric damaged democracy, while Trump said Amazon did not pay enough tax.
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Bezos appears to have warmed to the president in his second administration, however. He attended Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, alongside other big tech founders, and donated $1m to his inauguration fund.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos, announced days before the most recent presidential election that it would not endorse a candidate, for the first time in more than three decades. The newspaper then overhauled its opinion section in February to focus its output “in support and defence of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets”, Bezos said.
Shares in Amazon slipped nearly 1% in early trading on Wall Street on Friday.
