Jeff Bezos to sell up to 25 million Amazon shares under 10b5-1 trading plan: What it is

Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994, is planning to offload nearly $4.8 billion worth of the company’s stocks over the next year. As revealed in a regulatory filing, the former CEO plans to sell up to 25m shares through trading plan "intended to satisfy Rule 10b5-1(c)" that ends on May 29, 2026. Bezos has previously sold $13.4bn of Amazon stock in 2024. With the planned sell off revealed in the Friday regulatory filing, he will now own less than 9% of the e-commerce business. Despite this, Bezos' remaining shares are worth about $170 billion in the $2 trillion company.

Rule 10b5-1 is a regulation from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that lets insiders at public companies set up a plan to sell their shares ahead of time. Under this rule, major shareholders can schedule the sale of a fixed number of shares at a set time, helping them avoid accusations of insider trading. Many company executives use 10b5-1 plans for this reason. The rule was introduced to clarify Rule 10b-5, part of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which is the main law used to investigate securities fraud.

The announcement comes after Amazon reported its first-quarter earnings on Thursday (May 1). Although profit and revenue were higher than expected, the company’s forecast for operating income this quarter fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.
Speaking with analysts following the company's first-quarter earnings announcement, existing CEO Andy Jessy said that President Trump's China tariffs may actually strengthen Amazon's position in the retail market while putting traditional retailers at a disadvantage. "Retailers who aren't buying directly from China are typically buying from companies who themselves are buying from China, marking these items up, rebranding and selling to U.S. consumers," Jassy told.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has sent a letter to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, raising concerns about reports that the e-commerce giant dropped a plan to show customers the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs after a personal call between Trump and Bezos. According to reports, Amazon had been preparing to display how much of an item's cost was linked to tariffs imposed during Trump’s presidency. However, before the plan was implemented, Trump reportedly called Bezos, expressed his anger, and soon after, the plan was reversed.
The US President later praised Bezos, saying, “Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific… He solved the problem very quickly. Good guy.”
In her letter, Warren asked whether Trump threatened Bezos with policy actions against Amazon. She also questioned if Trump offered any promises or concessions in exchange for Amazon's decision to abandon the plan.