Jeff Bezos sells roughly $2 billion of Amazon shares

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez watch as model presents a creation for Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2024/25 men's collection in Milan, Italy January 13, 2024. REUTERS

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos sold around 12 million shares of the online retail and cloud services firm for roughly $2 billion, according to a company filing on Friday, soon after laying out a plan to sell his shares over the next year.

The sale took place on Wednesday and Thursday, the filings showed.

Last week, Amazon said that Bezos would sell up to 50 million shares in the firm.

The sale plan, which is subject to certain conditions, was adopted on Nov 8, 2023, and would be completed by Jan 31, 2025, according to the company's latest annual report.

Bezos, who stepped down as the company's chief executive and took over as executive chairman in 2021, founded Amazon as a bookseller in 1994.

He is currently the world's second richest person with a net worth of $200 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.