Jeff Bezos Owned 43% Of Amazon At IPO — Now He's Down To 9%

Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and served as the CEO for many years before stepping down in 2021. Bezos has been selling Amazon stock aggressively in the past two years, taking his stake down to less than 10%.Bezos Selling Amazon StockBezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 after quitting his job at an investment firm to open an online bookstore company. The future billionaire moved to Seattle to create the company and drafted the initial business plan during his cross-country trip from New York to Seattle.Three years later, the company went public with an initial price offering. The company offered shares at a price point of $18 and a company valuation of around $300 million.At the time of Amazon’s IPO, Bezos owned around 43% of the company, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Fast forward to today and Amazon is worth $2.3 trillion. The huge value creation by the company over the years has helped turn Bezos into one of the richest people in the world and helped create billionaires among early backers of the company.Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2021, 27 years after founding the company. At the time he stepped down, Bezos owned around 14.1% of the company. While he still serves as executive chairman of Amazon, Bezos is much less involved with the company he founded and has been selling shares in the company he owns, as reported by the Benzinga Insider Trades page.Bezos made multiple share sales in 2024 and 2025, including multiple transactions in July 2025 around the time of his second wedding.A new filing from Amazon this week shows that Bezos currently owns 964,340,319 shares of Amazon, representing 9% of the company.Bezos' Amazon stock stake is valued at $207.88 billion, representing the majority of his $240 billion wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Bezos is the fourth richest person in the world, but has the lowest year-to-date gain in 2025 among the seven richest people, with Amazon shares currently negative year-to-date.Read Also: Amazon Q2 Earnings Highlights: Double Beat, ‘AI Progress Across The Board Continues’Why Is Bezos Selling?Many company founders who step down from the CEO role go on to sell off shares and lower their stake in the company. This could be among the main reasons that Bezos has been actively selling shares.Several of the 2025 transactions coincided with his wedding to journalist Lauren Sanchez, an event that took place in Italy and came with a reported hefty price tag.There's also the $500 million superyacht Koru that Bezos recently bought, which has annual operating costs of $25 million.Bezos could also be freeing up cash to prepare for the purchase of an NFL team. Bezos was linked previously to a bid on the Washington Commanders and could have his eyes set on the Seattle Seahawks.The Seahawks are valued at $6.7 billion by Forbes, ranking 14th among NFL teams. The team will be placed up for sale in the future at the request of former team owner Paul Allen, who stipulated his professional sports team ownership stakes would be sold after his death in 2018.Allen also owned the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and the team reached a sale in September 2025, which could put the Seahawks next up to start the sale process.Or maybe Bezos is freeing up money to buy dinosaur fossils, as he has been linked to multiple bids in recent auctions. Bezos also owns space company Blue Origin and news organization The Washington Post. Since stepping down from Amazon, these companies have gotten more attention from Bezos and he could be investing more in their future growth through his own personal wealth. Jurassic Park Meets Stock Market: Rally Brings Record-Breaking Dinosaur Offering To InvestorsPhoto: Lev Radin via Shutterstock