Author: Phoebe Liu, Forbes Translation by: Lemin Over the past year, tech billionaires have expressed their unwavering belief in AI technology, but their actionsAuthor: Phoebe Liu, Forbes Translation by: Lemin Over the past year, tech billionaires have expressed their unwavering belief in AI technology, but their actions

A list of tech billionaires who will sell the most of their own company's stock in 2025.

2026/01/08 16:00

Author: Phoebe Liu, Forbes

Translation by: 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 out.

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. Oracle was enjoying a bumper year at the time—the market was eagerly anticipating its massive expansion plans for its artificial intelligence data centers, and the company's stock price had reached an all-time high. "We need to complete this transition while the company is doing well," Katz told analysts at the time. She not only chose to retire at the company's peak but also used this opportunity to cash out a large portion of her capital.

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 the only one choosing to cash out. While the public market remains hot, driven by the AI boom, concerns about a bubble are also increasing, leading many billionaires to significantly reduce their holdings and cash out over the past year.

Forbes compiled a list of stock sales by 198 American tech tycoons on its billionaire list , including those transactions they were obligated to disclose in 2025 due to their positions as company executives, directors, or significant shareholdings. It's important to note that this data excludes sales solely for the purpose of paying taxes on newly granted stock, sales through charitable organizations, and expenditures related to 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 more than $19 billion. Among them, 14 billionaires cashed out no less than $500 million each, including Katz, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, and Jensen Huang.

From left to right: CoreWeave co-founders Brenning Mabe, Brian Venturo, and Peter Saranki. Image credit: Guerin Blask for Forbes

CoreWeave, an AI data center company, went public in March 2025. Since then, its Chief Business Officer, Brenning Macbeth, 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 is mainly due to market concerns about its debt situation and the slowdown in its data center construction. Some market analysts see CoreWeave as a bellwether for the booming AI industry and the sustainability of related capital expenditures.

The reduction of stock holdings by wealthy individuals is not solely due to 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 American children by creating 25 million accounts and depositing $250 into each. Specific details and timelines for 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 credit: Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Almost all share reduction plans were reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) months in advance, a rule originally established to prevent insider trading allegations. However, billionaires' share reduction activities often align with macroeconomic trends because the core conditions of the plans—including the frequency, scale, and timing of the reductions—are largely determined by the wealthy individuals themselves. For example, a billionaire can set a specific stock price target as a condition to trigger automatic share reductions, meaning they are highly likely to initiate the reduction 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) tend to generate more share reduction transactions.

Also noteworthy is the absence of Elon Musk, the world's richest man, and Larry Ellison, the world's fourth richest man, from this list. Instead of selling shares to generate cash, both have pledged hundreds of millions of shares of Tesla and Oracle stock respectively—allowing them to fully utilize the value of their shares without paying taxes on any sales.

The following are the tech tycoons on the Forbes Billionaires List who sold the most shares between January 1 and 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 worth of Oracle stock.

4. Jensen Huang

Net worth: $152 billion

Source of wealth: Nvidia

Stock reduction: $1.1 billion worth of Nvidia stock.

5. Jayshree Ullal

Net worth: $5.4 billion

Source of wealth: Arista Networks

Stock sales: $1 billion worth of Arista Networks stock

6. Herald Chen

Net worth: $2.4 billion

Source of wealth: Applovin

Share sales: $710 million worth of Applovin stock.

7. Frank Slootman

Net worth: $3.4 billion

Source of wealth: Snowflake

Stock sales: $680 million worth of Snowflake stock.

8. David Baszucki

Net worth: $5.3 billion

Source of wealth: Roblox

Stock sales: $670 million worth of Roblox stock.

9. Mark Zuckerberg

Net worth: $221 billion

Source of wealth: Meta

Stock sales: $640 million worth of Meta shares

10. Brian Armstrong

Net worth: US$11.5 billion

Source of wealth: Coinbase

Stock sales: $570 million worth of Coinbase stock.

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

Sources of wealth: Groupon, Tempus AI

Stock sales: $506 million worth of Tempus stock.

13. Mark Stevens

Net worth: US$10.5 billion

Source of wealth: Nvidia

Stock reduction: $500 million worth of Nvidia stock

14. Henry Samueli

Net worth: $33 billion

Source of wealth: Broadcom

Share reduction: $500 million worth of Broadcom stock.

15. Jack Cogen

Net worth: $1.9 billion

Source of wealth: CoreWeave

Stock sales: $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

Sources 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.

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