More than a dozen tech billionaires on The Forbes 400 have sold more than $15 billion in stock so far this year, with one person accounting for more than half. This is who sells the most.
by Phoebe LiuForbes staff
in November last year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced a move from Washington to sunny, tax-friendly Florida, splashing out $234 million on three properties in Miami’s “billionaire bunker” in the process. Bezos moved to be near family and the headquarters of space company Blue Origin, he said at the time.
Then came the stock sale. Between February and July, Bezos offloaded more than $8 billion worth of Amazon shares, after not selling any shares since 2021. In particular, Washington’s new tax conditions on capital gains, including stock sales, go into effect in January 2022 while Florida has nothing. . A representative for Bezos did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s not just Bezos who’s in sales. As a group, the tech billionaires on The Forbes 400 ranking of America’s richest people are richer than ever, worth $1.8 trillion—up more than $350 billion from last year, despite the sale. With general market optimism—much fueled by hype around high-performing artificial intelligence, and much of Big Tech valued at more than ever, many billionaires have been shedding large chunks of their stock lately, presumably taking advantage of the high valuations.
Forbes looked at the stock sales of all 24 tech billionaires in the Forbes 400 who were required to disclose stock sales due to holding executive positions, board seats or a large percentage of ownership that sold shares this year. We do not count shares sold only to help pay taxes on the billions in additional equity grants or shares sold by their philanthropic vehicles. In all, they have sold $ 15 billion common from January 1 to September 1 of this year, the day we locked in net worths for The Forbes 400. Seventeen of these billionaires have unloaded at least $ 100 million of stock each.
Almost all sales occur through trading plans filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission months in advance, per rules designed as a defense against insider trading charges. But the sale of billionaire shares often aligns with broad macroeconomic trends, since the terms of the trading plan-including how often, how much and when to sell shares-are mostly up to the billionaire.
Most of the big sellers this year, like Bezos (who is ranked No. 2 on the 2024 Forbes 400), will probably be timing the market. Many have paused selling stocks after the 2021 run-up, held on to their stocks when the tech market cratered in 2022, benefited from a major rebound in stock prices in 2023 — and are now taking money off the table.
Better market conditions, and some fears that capital gains taxes could increase in the next few years, help explain why billionaires are more likely to sell now than two years ago, according to Edward Renn, a longtime attorney at Withers, who. specializes in representing high-net-worthy individuals. Still, Renn added that sales of billions “are usually driven by their own life choices” or special business events and not “a lack of faith in a company.”
For example, Michael Dell (No. 12) scored his biggest payday ever in November, when Broadcom’s acquisition of Dell Broadcasting spinoff VMware put an estimated $ 33 billion in cash and stock in Dell’s pocket. It seems that Dell wants more money, so he began to unload shares of Dell Technologies, too-worth more than $ 2 billion, after not selling a single share since 2021. He is the most famous seller who did not propose a trading plan in advance. . (A representative for Dell declined to specify why Dell sold shares; some were likely part of the $4-plus billion he put into his charitable vehicle this year.) Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (No. 3) and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (No. . 11) have also reduced their stakes, to $940 million and $590 million, respectively. And Oracle founder Larry Ellison, meanwhile, sold $230 million worth of stock, mainly after exercising options that were about to expire. Of course, all three of them are worth more this year than a year ago, even with sales, meaning that the portion of wealth in their company’s stock is only higher.
Crypto bull Michael Saylor-who sold the highest percentage of his net worth of all tech billionaires on The Forbes 400, at 8.4%-reportedly unloaded shares of MicroStrategy in part to cover some personal debts and in part to buy back bitcoin.
All the $100-million-plus tech stock sellers in The Forbes 400 hold large equity positions in one company—doing “exactly what financial planners tell most people not to do, which is to have all your eggs in one basket” and can. also just trying to diversify and have some cash on hand, says Renn. Some billionaires are likely to sell shares to diversify their portfolios, a common financial move for many billionaires, whose fortunes are often heavily concentrated in the shares of companies that make them ultra-rich. And sales are likely to continue as long as market valuations hold, according to Scott Welch, chief investment officer in Certuity’s multifamily office.
Take Bezos, for example: in March, he filed a business plan saying that he would sell 25 million shares of Amazon by the end of 2025. He has more than 16 million shares—worth some $3 billion at the current share price—to return.
Tech Billionaires To Add $350 Billion To Their Wealth By 2024
The ten tech billionaires in The Forbes 400 whose fortunes have grown the most this year all have concentrated stakes in one public company. With higher stock prices this year there are more stock sales. It makes sense that some are cashing out now: the trading plan they file with the SEC often triggers automatic sales if the share price is above a certain target.
Here are the tech billionaires on The Forbes 400 who sold the most stocks from January 1, 2024 to September 1, 2024 this year:
Net worth: $197 billion Source of wealth: Amazon | Shares sold: $8.2 billion from Amazon
Net worth: $101 billion | Source of wealth: Dell Technologies | Shares sold: $2.1 billion from Dell
Net worth: $181 billion Source of wealth: Meta | Shares sold: $940 million from Meta
Net worth: $104 billion | Source of wealth: Nvidia | Shares sold: $590 million Nvidia
Net worth: $9.1 billion Source of wealth: Salesforce | Shares sold: $540 million Salesforce
Net worth: $3.9 billion | Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency | Shares sold: $330 million from Microstrategy
Net worth: $6.7 billion | Source of wealth: Software | Shares sold: $250 million from Intuit
Net worth: $136 billion Source of wealth: Alphabet | Shares sold: $240 million Alphabet
Net worth: $175 billion Source of wealth: Oracle | Shares sold: $230 million Oracle
Net worth: $4.4 billion Source of wealth: Computer network | Shares sold: $210 million Arista Networks
Net worth: $14.3 billion | Source of wealth: Business software | Shares sold: $210 million from Workday
Net worth: $8.1 billion | Source of wealth: Airbnb | Shares sold: $200 million from Airbnb
Net worth: $10.4 billion | Source of wealth: warehouse automation | Shares sold: $190 million from Symbotic
Net worth: $7.5 billion | Source of wealth: Airbnb | Shares sold: $150 million Airbnb
Net worth: $130 billion Source of wealth: Alphabet | Shares sold: $130 million Alphabet
Net worth: $4.6 billion | Source of wealth: Sensor system | Shares sold: $130 million from Samsara
Net worth: $4.7 billion | Source of wealth: Sensor system | Shares sold: $130 million from Samsara
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