Some people pay bills, other people collect bills. That’s bills, as in billions. Specifically, $3 billion, which is what Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made when he sold a boatload of company shares this week.
While most of the world would call 2020 the worst year they’ve experienced for any number of reasons, this is not even the first time this year that Bezos cashed in 10 figures worth of stock. In August, he offloaded more than $3.1 billion, and in February his take was north of $4 billion from a stock sale.
Now here’s the part of the story where the sheer magnitude of Bezos’ wealth will make you want to run to your garage tonight to start a business selling books online. Even after unloading all those shares, Bezos still owns more than 53 million shares, that currently have a value of $170 billion, securing his status as the richest person on this, or any other planet in the galaxy.
If you’re wondering what Bezos is doing with all this money, well, he’s not just buying up the most expensive homes and land in Southern California. Yes, he’s definitely doing that too, but he’s said in the past that he sells roughly $1 billion in stock each year to pump funds into Blue Origin, his rocket start-up. Plus, he’s concerned with the environment, and in February he launched his Earth Fund, designed to combat the effects of climate change. The cost of that? $10 billion, which will be used to issue grants to scientists, activists and other organizations.
So the richest guy on the planet, has a rocket company in case he wants to leave the planet, and in his spare time he’s funding the efforts for scientists to save this planet. And how was your week?
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