Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his former wife MacKenzie Scott are significantly reducing their ownership stakes in the e-commerce giant, with new regulatory filings showing Bezos’ shareholding has dropped below 10% for the first time.

When Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO in 2021, he still held around 14% of the company — down from the 43% stake he controlled when Amazon went public in 1997. However, filings this week reveal that his ownership has now fallen to roughly 9%, after unloading more than 100 million shares over the past year.

Geoff Bezos with former wife now McKenzie Scott.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and his new wife Lauren Sanchez

The sell-down forms part of a broader divestment strategy that began after Bezos left the top job and handed daily operations to successor Andy Jassy. In February, he filed to sell another 25 million shares — a move worth an estimated US$5 billion based on stock prices at the time. He has also donated more than 500,000 Amazon shares to charity in recent months, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosures.

Bezos’ former wife MacKenzie Scott has also been actively selling her Amazon holdings. Over the past year, Scott has sold 42% of her shares — worth around US$12.6 billion — and now owns 81.1 million shares, down 58 million from the same period last year, according to a September 30 filing obtained by Bloomberg.

Since finalizing her divorce from Bezos in 2019, the 55-year-old philanthropist has donated more than US$19 billion to charitable causes.

Amazon’s stock has climbed roughly 38% since late April, providing an opportune moment for both Bezos and Scott to reduce their stakes. Despite the sell-offs, Bezos remains among the world’s wealthiest individuals, with an estimated net worth of around US$240 billion — trailing only Tesla’s Elon Musk and LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault.