Amazon boss Jeff Bezos sells Amazon shares – apparently to finance other projects, such as his rocket start-up Blue Origin.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has sold shares of his online sales platform Amazon worth around US $ 2 billion, about 1.7 billion euros. This is based on reports to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which were filed between May 3rd and 5th.
The reports to the SEC indicate May 4th as the earliest transaction date. Bezos had already sold Amazon shares on a large scale several times – most recently in February and November 2020 . The stock sales brought Bezos around $ 7 billion into his coffers.
Money for Blue Origin and the Earth
What Bezos specifically wants to use the money for is not officially known. However, it is likely that it will flow into its other businesses. One of them is the space start-up Blue Origin, which competes with Tesla founder Elon Musk’s SpaceX space program. Bezos, who according to Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires is the richest man in the world with an estimated fortune of around 190 billion dollars, had announced that he would put billions in Blue Origin every year.
This is probably also necessary in order not to fall further behind against SpaceX. In April, SpaceX was able to land the NASA contract to build a lander for a lunar mission , which is expected to bring in around $ 2.89 billion. Blue Origin failed to get a move and was knocked out , then filed a complaint with the US audit office . The accusation: The concept of Blue Origin was misjudged and the technical risks of the concept of SpaceX were underestimated. In addition, Bezos is pursuing another goal with Blue Origin: Bezos plans to start its first manned 11-minute flight into space as early as July. One of the six seats in the spacecraft is to be auctioned for a good cause .
A further portion of the share sales proceeds could also flow into the “Bezos Earth Fund”. With the funds, Bezos supports the research work of scientists to get global warming under control. The money also goes to individual organizations and activists. The development of technology to stop global warming is also supported.
Bezos himself wants to give up his post as CEO of Amazon in the third quarter. He wants to concentrate on new projects and products. But it will stay with Amazon, said Bezos in February . He will then take on the role of Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.
