Amazon shares fell 2% on Tuesday after a filing revealed founder Jeff Bezos' plan to sell approximately 15 million shares worth roughly $4.1 billion. According to reports from CNBC TV18, the sale was conducted through Morgan Stanley under a Rule 10b5-1 plan adopted on November 14, 2025, with Monday listed as the approximate sale date. The filing reveals that Bezos executed the sale through a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan that was set eight and a half months earlier, with the shares themselves acquired as founder stock back in 1994, three years before Amazon's 1997 initial public offering. The filing puts the total value at $4,073,700,000, with each share priced at $271.58 - the Friday closing price, not Monday's record high of $284.02. As reported by CNBC TV18, the stock closed at $277.42 on Tuesday, down $6.60 from the previous session, though it was trading slightly higher in after-hours at $277.80, up 0.14%.
The share price decline came after Amazon touched an all-time high, continuing gains from last week's strong quarterly results. According to CNBC TV18, the stock had rallied 20% this year, significantly outperforming the broader U.S. market as investors increasingly view Amazon as one of the principal beneficiaries of rising enterprise spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and cloud services. Amazon added 4.6% on Monday to close at a record high, becoming only the fifth company to ever cross the $3 trillion market-cap threshold. The e-commerce major's shares have rallied 23% this year, more than double the 11% gain in the S&P 500. However, CNBC TV18 reports that AMZN changed hands near $277.41 late Tuesday morning, down 2.33%, reflecting the market's reaction to the latest sale announcement. The timing coincidence made the sale look reactive, but the filing date reveals the plan was already fixed months in advance.
Amazon's strong second-quarter earnings were driven by stronger-than-expected growth in its cloud-computing business, boosting investor confidence that its artificial intelligence investments are translating into accelerating demand. According to CNBC TV18, the company reported $200.61 billion in revenue during the April-June quarter and earnings of $5.75 per share. A major reason for the strong earnings was Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud computing business, which performed better than expected. The results also showed that Amazon's massive spending on artificial intelligence (AI) is starting to bring in more business. This performance has reinforced market sentiment that the company's AI strategy is delivering tangible results, with the latest quarterly results reinforcing the narrative that Amazon is well-positioned to benefit from the growing enterprise AI spending trend.
The latest sale follows a separate program under which Bezos sold 25 million Amazon shares for nearly $5.7 billion between late June and late July. As reported by CNBC TV18, the filing reveals that Bezos donated 220,200 Amazon shares to non-profit organizations in May. If the latest proposed disposal is completed in full, Bezos' stake would fall to around 869 million shares, or about 8.1% of Amazon's 10.79 billion outstanding shares. The remaining stake would still be worth $244 billion at the overnight price. According to CNBC TV18, the SEC filing also stated that Bezos had not sold any Amazon shares in the three months before this filing. This represents Bezos' smallest sale by share count but his second biggest by dollars. The sales follow a Rule 10b5-1 plan that locks in trades months ahead, shielding insiders from claims they traded on private information, with Bezos having sold Amazon stock through similar prearranged plans in recent years.
Looking ahead, Amazon has provided optimistic guidance for the third quarter, with the company expecting revenue between $197 billion and $202 billion and forecasting operating income of $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion, up from $17.4 billion in the same quarter last year. According to CNBC TV18, this strong outlook reflects the company's continued momentum in cloud computing and AI services. The filing also revealed that the 15 million shares were founder shares that Bezos received when he started Amazon in 1994, providing context for the significant value of the proposed sale. Despite the recent stock decline, Amazon's shares are still up about 20% this year, compared with a 12% gain in the S&P 500 index, demonstrating the company's resilience and continued investor confidence in its growth trajectory.
