Jeff Bezos made $735 million off Wall Street even on his wedding day. But that’s not the whole story

While most couples embark on their honeymoon with packed bags and fluttering hearts, Jeff Bezos had an additional companion on his wedding day- Wall Street. On June 27, 2025, as he married media personality Lauren Sanchez, the Amazon founder quietly made $735 million by selling more than 3.3 million Amazon shares, according to Fortune, citing SEC filings.

Yes, even amid champagne toasts and vows of forever, Bezos’s fortune swelled.

And that was just the beginning.


Over the weeks that followed, Bezos continued to trim his stake in Amazon, ultimately offloading stock worth a staggering $5.7 billion between late June and late July. The selloff occurred under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plan filed in early May, which allows corporate executives to schedule trades in advance, shielding them from allegations of insider trading.

Lavish Love, Lush Liquidity

The wedding itself, held aboard Bezos’s luxury yacht Koru off the Amalfi Coast, symbolized the couple’s extravagant lifestyle. But the simultaneous financial move—a major liquidation of shares—adds an ironic twist to the celebrations.

The shares sold on June 27 were priced between $221 and $223, Fortune’s calculation shows. By July 24, Bezos had sold more than 24 million Amazon shares at steadily rising prices—peaking above $233—capitalizing on Amazon’s recent market upswing.

Yet despite the mammoth selloff, Bezos remains Amazon’s largest individual shareholder, retaining around 884 million shares. With a current net worth of $252 billion (as per Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index), he comfortably holds his spot as the world’s third-richest person.

What’s the Plan, Jeff?

The sales were not impulsive. The SEC's Rule 10b5-1 mandates a formulaic and arms-length approach to such trades. Once the plan is in place, neither Bezos nor his advisors can tweak the amount or timing, ensuring that insider information doesn’t influence the transactions.

A similar strategy has recently been employed by Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who also used a 10b5-1 plan to orchestrate a sizable selloff.

This mechanism suggests a deliberate wealth-management blueprint from Bezos—balancing liquidity, market timing, and optics. After all, few billionaires want their stock selloffs to look like sudden moves.

The Quiet Side of Giving

Alongside these blockbuster trades, Bezos has also quietly donated over 600,000 Amazon shares to unnamed nonprofit organizations. According to a Form 144 filing dated June 27 (the same day as his wedding), Morgan Stanley, filing on Bezos’s behalf, reported contributions of 633,812 shares across May and June.

The recipients of these generous gifts remain undisclosed, reflecting Bezos’s relatively low-key approach to philanthropy—at least in terms of visibility. While he has not signed The Giving Pledge, the billionaire stated in a 2022 interview with CNN that he plans to give away the majority of his wealth over his lifetime.

“We are building the capacity to be able to give away this money,” he said at the time.