Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos sold another 12 million shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth over $2 billion this past week, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing disclosed late Tuesday. The stock sale brings Bezos’ total sale of Amazon stock so far this year to almost 24 million shares, worth $4 billion. And it’s all inching him closer to dislodging Tesla CEO Elon Musk as the world’s richest person.
Bezos initially started selling Amazon stock on Feb. 7 and Feb. 8. The latest SEC filing shows he continued selling shares on Feb. 9 and Feb. 12. Amazon stock has risen 13% to $170 since the start of the year.
In a prior filing, Bezos proposed the sale of 50 million Amazon shares worth an estimated $8.4 billion.
Miami tax savings
Bezos could also end up saving almost $600 million because of his recent move to Miami — because Florida has no capital gains tax.
Bezos announced his move to Miami from Seattle, where Amazon is based, in an Instagram post in November.
He said he was moving back to the city where he attended high school to be closer to his parents and the operations of his aerospace company, Blue Origin.
Bezos didn’t mention Washington state’s new capital gains tax as a reason for his move. But the billionaire didn’t sell any Amazon stock in 2022 or 2023 while he was still living there and the new tax was enacted, Fortune reports.
Now that he lives in Florida, he has managed to avoid this tax. If he completes his proposed sale of all 50 million shares, he could end up saving almost $600 million.
He has likely saved over $280 million on his transactions so far.
Overtaking Elon Musk as the worlds richest person
The stock sales could also propel Bezos’ net worth, allowing him to reclaim his spot as the world’s wealthiest person from Musk.
Bezos currently sits at the No. 2 spot on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $200 billion. He is just $9 billion behind Musk, who currently sits atop the rankings with $209 billion. But Musk’s net worth has fallen considerably this year as Tesla stock has plummeted, making it the worst in the S&P 500.
And Musk’s wealth took another blow early this year when a judge voided his historic $56 billion executive compensation package, declaring it unfair to shareholders.