What is Jeff Bezos up to with his latest Amazon stock sale?
Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Amazon, has recently sold around 12 million shares of the e-commerce giant for roughly $2 billion, according to a company filing on Friday. This is his first stock sale since 2021, when he sold about $10 billion worth of shares.
Bezos announced last year that he would step down as the CEO of Amazon and take over as the executive chairman in 2021. He also revealed that he plans to sell up to 50 million shares of Amazon over the next 12 months, potentially cashing in on a stock surge that has put him within reach of becoming the world's richest person. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bezos has a net worth of $200 billion as of February 10, 2024.
But what is Bezos going to do with all that money? One possible answer is that he is investing it in his space exploration startup, Blue Origin. According to a Reuters report in 2017, Bezos said that he was selling his Amazon shares to fund his space venture, which aims to send tourists and astronauts to orbit and beyond.
Blue Origin has been making steady progress in its ambitious goals. In 2021, it launched its first crewed flight to space, carrying Bezos himself and three other passengers. In 2022, it won a contract from NASA to develop a lunar lander for the Artemis program, which plans to return humans to the moon by 2024. And in 2023, it unveiled its orbital rocket, New Glenn, which is expected to launch its first mission in 2025.
Bezos has said that he believes that space is the future of humanity and that he wants to use his wealth to help make it happen. "I'm very lucky that I feel like I have a mission-driven purpose with Blue Origin that is, I think, incredibly important for civilization long term," he said in an interview with CBS News in 2019.
Bezos is not the only billionaire who is passionate about space. Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has also been selling his shares to fund his interplanetary ambitions. Musk has a net worth of $210 billion as of February 10, 2024, making him the richest person in the world. He has said that he plans to sell most of his assets and move to Mars someday.
Whether Bezos and Musk will succeed in their cosmic dreams remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: they are not afraid to use their fortunes to pursue them.