Amazon founder cashes in
Jeff Bezos sells shares for $2 billion
February 11, 2024, 10:38 a.m
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As Amazon’s share price recovers, Jeff Bezos’ wealth also recovers. The Amazon founder takes advantage of the opportunity and, as announced, exchanges some of his securities for US dollars. In the list of the richest people in the world, he is still suspiciously close to leader Elon Musk.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has sold around twelve million Amazon shares worth more than two billion US dollars. Loud Documents According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bezos sold the securities on February 7th and 8th at an average price of $170.21 per share. When it comes to valuation, Bezos benefited from the recent sharp rise in the price of Amazon shares.
Amazon announced last week that Bezos wanted to sell a total of up to 50 million shares in his company. The sales plan was therefore decided on November 8th last year. The project is scheduled to be completed by January 31, 2025.
Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer and the world’s largest cloud service provider. A week and a half ago, the company reported sales of almost $170 billion for the Christmas quarter. On the financial markets, the price of Amazon shares rose by more than 70 percent in the past twelve months. With a market capitalization of $1.812 trillion, Amazon is currently the fourth most valuable company in the US behind Microsoft (3.1), Apple (2.9) and Google parent Alphabet (1.8). Chip company Nvidia takes fifth place (1.7).
Will Bezos replace Musk?
Due to the strong share price growth, Bezos is trading in the Billionaire Index According to the financial portal Bloomberg, he is now back in second place behind Elon Musk. According to the information, the head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the space company SpaceX is currently worth 209 billion US dollars. Bezos is worth $200 billion thanks to his stake in Amazon. The third richest person in the world is currently Frenchman Bernard Arnault: the owner of the luxury group LVMH holds shares worth $191 billion.
However, there may soon be a changing of the guard on the list of the richest people in the world: after a collapse in Amazon shares, Bezos’s fortune fell to around $100 billion a good year ago. Since then, the rating has doubled again. If the development continues, Bezos could replace Musk, who, according to Bloomberg calculations, was already worth $338 billion a good two years ago. However, his assets have shrunk significantly since then, mainly due to the falling price of Tesla shares.