Tech billionaires who will sell the most of their own company's stock in 2025

Author: Phoebe Liu, Forbes

Translator: Lemin

Over the past year, tech billionaires have expressed their unwavering belief in AI technology, but their actions haven't always matched their words. Among these billionaires who reduced their holdings, some used the proceeds to try and build new AI companies, while others took advantage of the AI ​​boom to cash in.

In September, billionaire Safra Katz announced her resignation as CEO of tech giant Oracle after 11 years at the helm, moving into an advisory role. At that time, Oracle was experiencing a bumper year—the market was full of expectations for its massive expansion plan for AI data centers, and the company's stock price hit an all-time high. "We need to complete this handover while the momentum is good," Katz told analysts at the time. She not only chose to retire at the company's peak but also took the opportunity to cash out on a large scale.

According to Forbes estimates, since January 1, 2025, Katz has sold a total of $1.9 billion worth of Oracle stock, cashing out more than two-thirds of her net worth. In terms of the amount cashed out, she ranks third among tech billionaires, but in terms of the percentage of her net worth cashed out, she ranks first. Katz is not alone in choosing to cash out. While the public market remains hot due to the artificial intelligence boom, concerns about bubble risks are also increasing, leading many billionaires to significantly reduce their holdings and cash out over the past year. Forbes compiled data on stock sales by 198 American tech tycoons on its billionaire list, including stock sales transactions they are obligated to disclose in 2025 due to their positions as company executives, directors, or holding significant stakes in companies. It should be noted that the statistics do not include reductions in holdings solely for the purpose of paying taxes on newly granted shares, stock sales completed through charitable organizations, or expenditures incurred for exercising stock options. Data shows that from January 1 to December 15, 2025, the top 20 billionaires in terms of the amount of shares sold cashed out over $19 billion. Among them, 14 billionaires cashed out at least $500 million each, including Katz, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, and Jensen Huang. From left to right: CoreWeave co-founders Brenning Mabey, Brian Venturo, and Peter Saranki. Image source: Guerin & Blask for Forbes

CoreWeave, an artificial intelligence data center company, went public in March 2025. Since then, its Chief Business Officer, Brenning Mabey, Director and Investor Jack Kogan, and Chief Strategy Officer, Brian Venturo, have cashed out significantly, selling $473 million, $488 million, and $289 million worth of CoreWeave stock respectively. The company's stock price has halved since August, and their early selling in the first half of the year allowed them to avoid most of the impact. CoreWeave's stock price plunge was mainly due to market concerns about its debt situation and the slowdown in its data center construction. Some market participants see CoreWeave as a bellwether for the prosperity of the artificial intelligence industry and the sustainability of related capital expenditures.

The wealthy individuals' stock sales are not solely for risk management.

Among all US tech billionaires whose transactions require disclosure, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos topped the list in terms of the amount of shares he sold. He may invest the proceeds in multiple areas: more luxurious real estate projects, the rocket company Blue Origin, venture capital projects (including robotics), and his mysterious new artificial intelligence startup, Project Prometheus—reportedly having raised over $6 billion, some of which came from Bezos himself. In December, Dell pledged $6.25 billion to donate to American children by creating 25 million accounts and depositing $250 into each. Specific details and timelines of the donation plan have not yet been released, but this massive donation will undoubtedly help Dell reduce its tax burden from the sale of $2.2 billion worth of stock.

Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell. Image source: Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Almost all share reduction plans are reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission months in advance. This rule was originally established to prevent insider trading allegations. However, the share reduction behavior of billionaires often coincides with macroeconomic trends because the core conditions of the transaction plan—including the frequency, scale, and timing of the reduction—are largely determined by the billionaires themselves.

For example, billionaires can set a target stock price as a condition to trigger automatic share sales, meaning they are highly likely to initiate sales when the company's stock price rises. This explains why some billionaires are still cashing out: high stock prices (which currently appear to be the case) often lead to more share sales. Also noteworthy is that Elon Musk, the world's richest man, and Larry Ellison, the world's fourth richest man, are not on this list. Instead of selling shares to generate cash, they pledged hundreds of millions of shares of Tesla and Oracle stock respectively—allowing them to fully utilize the value of the shares without paying taxes on the sale. Below are the tech tycoons with the highest stock sales on the Forbes Billionaires list from January 1 to December 15, 2025. 1. Jeff Bezos Net Worth: $238 billion Source of Wealth: Amazon Stock Sales: $5.6 billion worth of Amazon stock 2. Michael Dell Net Worth: $143 billion Source of Wealth: Dell Stock Sales: $2.2 billion worth of Dell stock 3. Safra Catz Net Worth: $2.8 billion Source of wealth: Oracle Stock reduction: $1.9 billion in Oracle stock 4. Jensen Huang Net worth: $152 billion Source of wealth: Nvidia Stock reduction: $1.1 billion in Nvidia stock 5. Jayshree Ullal Net worth: $5.4 billion Source of wealth: Arista Networks Stock reduction: $1 billion in Arista Networks stock 6. Herald Chen's net worth: $2.4 billion. Source of wealth: Applovin. Stock sales: $710 million worth of Applovin stock. 7. Frank Slootman's net worth: $3.4 billion. Source of wealth: Snowflake. Stock sales: $680 million worth of Snowflake stock. 8. David Baszucki's net worth: $5.3 billion. Source of wealth: Roblox. 9. Mark Zuckerberg: Net Worth: $221 billion; Source of Wealth: Meta; 10. Brian Armstrong: Net Worth: $11.5 billion; Source of Wealth: Coinbase; 11. Stephen Cohen Net Worth: $6.3 billion Source of Wealth: Palantir Stock Sales: $561 million worth of Palantir stock 12. Eric Lefkofsky Net Worth: $5.8 billion Source of Wealth: Groupon, Tempus AI Stock Sales: $506 million worth of Tempus stock 13. Mark Stevens Net Worth: $10.5 billion Source of Wealth: Nvidia Stock Reductions: $500 million worth of Nvidia stock. 14. Henry Samueli: Net Worth: $33 billion; Source of Wealth: Broadcom. Stock Reductions: $500 million worth of Broadcom stock. 15. Jack Cogen: Net Worth: $1.9 billion; Source of Wealth: CoreWeave. Stock Reductions: $490 million worth of CoreWeave stock. 16. Brannin McBee. Net Worth: $2.4 billion Source of Wealth: CoreWeave Stock Sales: $470 million worth of CoreWeave stock 17. Reed Hastings Net Worth: $5.2 billion Source of Wealth: Netflix Stock Sales: $370 million worth of Netflix stock 18. David Duffield Net Worth: $13 billion Source of Wealth: Workday, PeopleSoft Stock Sales: $310 million worth of Workday stock 19. Brian Venturo Net Worth: $3.2 billion Source of Wealth: CoreWeave Stock Sales: $276 million worth of CoreWeave stock 20. Shyam Sankar Net Worth: $1.3 billion Source of Wealth: Palantir Stock Sales: $250 million worth of Palantir stock