MacKenzie Scott continues to sell billions of dollars in Amazon stock.
In 2023, she unloaded nearly 65.3 million shares of Amazon, currently worth more than US$10 billion, according to a filing.
After her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was finalized in 2019, Scott became the wealthiest woman in the world, receiving about 19.7 million shares, equal to four per cent of Amazon’s total outstanding shares, in the settlement. She has since sold off portions of her Amazon stake, donating billions of dollars to charity.
Bezos retained the voting rights to Scott’s shares as part of the agreement, which is why he reported them to the SEC when disclosing his 11.5 per cent stake in the company.
In 2019, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, a promise signed by hundreds of the world’s richest people to give away the majority of their wealth. The pledge has been signed by business titans like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
Bezos is not a signatory, though he told CNN in 2022 that he planned to devote the bulk of his wealth to fighting climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity.
In December, Scott announced that she had made US$2.15 billion in donations over the past year through her foundation, Yield Giving. The non-profit had donated to 360 organizations, according to the announcement.
Although Scott has sold billions of dollars worth of Amazon shares in recent years, her net worth is still more than US$37 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
