The Race to Gain Title of World’s Richest Individual Has a Long Way to Go with Jeff Bezos Planning to Sell 50 Million of Amazon’s Shares

Amidst the ongoing surge in Amazon’s shares, which have already witnessed a remarkable 15% increase this year, the founder of the e-commerce giant, Jeff Bezos, is poised to capitalize on the flourishing trend. In a significant move, Amazon has disclosed that Bezos is contemplating the sale of up to 50 million shares of the company he founded in 1994.

Jeff Bezos, aged 60, has strategically outlined his plan in a stock exchange filing on Friday, adopting a trading plan to execute the sale of 50 million shares at any time before January 31st next year. The current valuation of these shares stands at approximately $8.6 billion. If Bezos proceeds with this plan, it will mark his first Amazon stock sale since 2021. However, in a surprising move last year around May-June, Bezos added a layer of mystery by purchasing a single share of Amazon, his first such acquisition since 2002.

The announcement of Amazon’s robust online sales growth last week propelled its stock to surge by almost 8%, reaching nearly $172 in a single day on Friday. This surge, in turn, elevated Jeff Bezos’s net worth by a staggering $12.1 billion in one day, bringing it to a current standing of $197 billion.

Amid the backdrop of surging Amazon shares and Bezos’s escalating net worth, the revelation of his intention to sell 50 million shares has probably propelled him ahead of Louis Vuitton’s Bernard Arnault and  Elon Musk in terms of wealth. The unfolding dynamics in the world of finance are positioning Bezos at the forefront of a potential shift in the global wealth hierarchy.

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