Jeff Bezos stake to come down to 8.8% after planned Amazon share sale worth $5 billion

Amazon founder and executive chair Jeff Bezos plans to sell 25 million shares of the e-commerce giant worth almost $5 billion after its stock hit a record high, a regulatory filing showed.

After the sale, Bezos' stake in the company would come down to 912 million or 8.8% of the outstanding stock.

Amazon share price hit an all-time high of $200.43 on Tuesday and the proposed sale was disclosed in a notice filed after market hours. The stock has jumped more than 30% so far this year, outperforming the 4% gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average index.

On Wednesday, Amazon share price ended 1.21% lower at $197.59. Amazon shares had closed at $200 on Tuesday, the highest since its 1997 listing.

In February this year, Bezos had sold Amazon shares worth roughly about $8.5 billion over nine trading days.

Bezos, 60, is ranked the second-richest person in the world with a net worth of $214.4 billion, according to Forbes. He is also the founder of space-exploration company Blue Origin.

Meanwhile, Amazon said on Wednesday it would discontinue its security robot, Astro for Business, for small- and medium-sized businesses as it shifts its focus to household robots.

The Astro for Business robots will not be functional from September 25, according to an email sent by the company to customers and seen by Reuters.

The e-commerce giant initially launched the canine-like robot for household use in 2021. It launched Astro for Business last November for a range of customers including retail, manufacturing, health and wellness.

Amazon had posted upbeat first-quarter results in April driven by the artificial intelligence wave.

(With inputs from Reuters)