- Author, Joao da Silva
- Role, Business reporter
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says he will sell another 25 million shares of the tech giant, worth almost $5 billion (£3.9 billion).
This comes after the company’s stock market value hit a record high on Wednesday.
It was the first time since 2021 that Bezos sold Amazon shares.
The company’s shares have risen more than 30% this year as growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to boost profits in its cloud computing division.
Last month, Amazon’s market cap exceeded $2 trillion for the first time.
This still leaves them behind other major tech companies, such as Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, which have all surpassed the $3 trillion mark.
Amazon reported a solid quarterly profit in late April, showing that the company’s bet on AI is paying off.
Mr. Bezos stepped down as the company’s CEO in 2021 and is currently the executive chairman and remains the largest shareholder.
He founded Amazon in 1994 in a garage in Bellevue, Washington, when the Internet was still in its infancy.
The company started as an online bookseller with the largest collection of e-books in the world.
Since then, Amazon has grown into one of the world’s largest online retail and cloud computing companies.
He also founded the rocket company Blue Origin, which sent six customers to the edge of space in May.
According to the Forbes Billionaires list, Bezos is the second richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of around $214 billion.