While tech stocks were hitting record highs in 2025, their executives were equally scrambling to turn their paper assets into real cash, worth more than $16 billion, according to trading data compiled by Bloomberg.
Jeff Bezos led the way. The “Amazon” founder sold 25 million shares for $5.7 billion in June and July, around the time he married Lauren Sanchez in Venice. Former “Oracle” CEO Safra Catz was not far behind with $2.5 billion, followed by Michael Dell with $2.2 billion.
The tech rally, fueled by euphoria about all things artificial intelligence, has also boosted the success of lesser-known executives like “Arista Networks Inc.” CEO Jayshree Ullal. A rare billionaire without a co-founder, the longtime CEO of the networking equipment company sold nearly $1 billion worth of stock last year, pushing her net worth past $6 billion.
NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang watched his company become the world’s first $5 trillion business, and sold $1 billion along the way.
Most of these sales were based on pre-prepared trading plans that executives submitted in advance; they were not spontaneous decisions. “Meta” CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold $945 million through his fund, while Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora and “Robinhood” founder Baiju Bhatt each received more than $700 million.
The general trend has been an AI-driven rally that has sent tech stocks soaring all year long.
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