Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is preparing to offload up to $4.75 billion worth of Amazon shares over the next year, according to regulatory filings released Friday. The planned stock sale comes on the heels of Amazon’s warning about potential negative impacts from former President Donald Trump’s escalating global trade policies.
Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021, intends to sell up to 25 million shares through a pre-arranged trading plan that will extend through May 2026. At Amazon’s Thursday closing price of $190 per share, the stake is valued at approximately $4.75 billion.
The sale plan was quietly established in early March but disclosed just hours after Amazon issued a cautious outlook in its latest earnings report. The company signaled that revenue and operating income may fall short of analyst expectations due to mounting global trade tensions stoked by Trump’s renewed tariff threats and isolationist economic stance.
Bezos’s latest move follows a series of major stock sales. In 2024 alone, he sold more than $13.4 billion in Amazon shares as the company’s market capitalization surged past $2 trillion, driven in large part by investor optimism around Amazon’s growing artificial intelligence initiatives.
The disclosure raises fresh questions about how trade uncertainties could weigh on even the most resilient tech giants and signals that Bezos, Amazon’s largest individual shareholder, may be hedging against upcoming market volatility.
