Jeff Bezos this week unloaded 12 million shares of Amazon inventory, netting him about $2 billion in a strategic transfer that will place him to as soon as once more declare the title of “world’s richest man.”
The sale was in step with a plan introduced by the corporate earlier in February for Bezos to dump 50 million shares by the top of the 12 months, valued at roughly $8.5 billion complete.
Bezos owned 988 million shares, simply shy of 10% of Amazon, on the finish of December, based on the corporate’s 2023 proxy assertion, together with his total stake price about $168 billion.
A pointy rise in Amazon’s inventory this 12 months has led to a $22.6 billion rise within the firm’s founder and government chairman’s estimated wealth, based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The surge has propelled Bezos into second place on the world’s richest individuals checklist, with a web price of $200 billion on the time of publication.
Whereas the precise motive behind Bezos’ resolution to dump shares is unknown, the large sale does shrink the hole between his and Elon Musk‘s web price, positioning Bezos to overhaul the Tesla CEO within the rankings of the world’s richest individuals.
Earlier than this week’s sale of Amazon inventory, Bezos’ web price was solely $5 billion behind Musk’s $200 billion fortune, placing the title of #1 billionaire effectively inside attain. Musk’s web price rose to $209 billion within the days since, per Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, however the race for Bezos to catch as much as Musk is on.
Bezos first grew to become the richest individual on this planet in 2017, overtaking Invoice Gates. The pair traded off the title via the top of the 12 months, however Bezos held the place of the wealthiest man on this planet from 2018 via 2021, per Forbes‘ checklist of the world’s billionaires, when Musk overtook him.
As Bezos’ wealth has surged this 12 months, Musk’s has fallen by $29 billion, due partially to a 27% plunge in Tesla‘s inventory prompted by weaker-than-expected progress for the electrical automobile firm, in addition to a Delaware decide’s January 30 ruling that voided Musk’s $55 billion compensation bundle at Tesla.
Forbes’ checklist of billionaires as of February 1 positions Musk because the #2 billionaire, second to Bernard Arnault, the CEO and chairman of luxurious items group LVMH, and Bezos holding the third place title. Bloomberg’s checklist, nevertheless, which is up to date on the shut of each buying and selling day in New York, ranks Musk as having the highest slot with a fortune of $209 billion, with Bezos about $9 billion behind and Arnault in third.
Musk maintains 411 million, or about 13% of Tesla shares, valued at roughly $73 billion. His investments in his different firms, together with SpaceX, The Boring Firm, and X, comprise the remainder of his wealth.
Bezos and representatives for Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Enterprise Insider.
This week’s inventory sale shouldn’t be Bezos’ first time offloading a big portion of his Amazon holdings, although it’s the solely main sale he is made since 2021. That 12 months, Bezos bought $2.5 billion price of shares as he ready to step down as CEO.
In 2020, he dumped $1.8 billion after Amazon’s shares surged following the corporate’s 2019 full-year earnings name. In 2019, Bezos offloaded roughly $2.8 billion price of the firm’s inventory.Â
