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Jeff Bezos Sells Off $1B in Amazon Stock to Fund Rocket Company

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold almost $1 billion in Amazon Stock last week in order to fund his rocket company Blue Origin

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold almost $1 billion in Amazon Stock last week in order to fund his rocket company Blue Origin, reports the Post.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Seattle based company reaped $940.74 million from selling the stock—about $700 million after taxes—the most lucrative sale yet for Amazon, reports Forbes.

According to Bloomberg, the shares ranged in price from $935 to $950 and Bezos still owns the most of Amazon’s stock with 79.9 million shares, or about 17 percent of the company.

Amazon’s stock has risen 25 percent this year so far, and hit a record high last Monday after the company reported “better-than-expected” results, reports the Post.

Bezos said at the Space Symposium in April, that he is funding his rocket company, Blue Origin, through the sale of Amazon stock every year, reports the Post. Last year, Bezos made two scheduled sales in May and August that accrued him about $1.4 billion for his rocket company, says the Post.

“My business model right now … for Blue Origin is I sell about $1 billion of Amazon stock a year and I use it to invest in Blue Origin,” said Bezos who is hoping to begin test flights with company pilots and engineers in 2017.

“It’s a mistake to race to a deadline when you’re talking about a flying vehicle, especially one that you’re going to put people on,” he said. “I still think we can do commercial paying passengers in 2018.”

Bezos says he wants Blue Origin, which aims to launch paying costumers on an 11-minute space ride by next year, to become a self sustaining enterprise that will cut the cost of space travel so millions of people can live and work off of Earth, says Reuters.

Similar to tech entrepreneur Elon Musk—founder of and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Bezos says reusability of rocket parts is the answer to cutting the cost of space travel, reports Reuters.

“If we can make access to space low-cost, then entrepreneurs will be unleashed,” says Bezos. “You will see creativity, you will see dynamism, you will see the same thing in space that I’ve witnessed on the internet in the last 20 years.”

According to Forbes, in March Bezos became the second richest person in the world— right behind cofounder of Microsoft, Bill gates— with a net worth of about $79.6 billion.

By: Eloise Albaret

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