MacKenzie Scott has sold nearly half her Amazon stake, according to a filing disclosed this week.
A regulatory filing with the SEC, filed Tuesday and dated September 30, shows that Scott’s ex-husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, reported holding 81.1 million shares on Scott’s behalf.
That’s down from about 139 million shares a year earlier and one of the steepest drops since the couple split in 2019. At Tuesday’s closing share price, the reduction is equivalent to roughly $12.6 billion.
The filing doesn’t specify whether the decline reflects stock sales, charitable transfers, or both, but it marks a major shift for one of the world’s most generous philanthropists.
Bezos remains the reporting party because he continues to exercise voting power over Scott’s shares under the terms of their divorce.
An email from Business Insider to Yield Giving, Scott’s philanthropic platform, seeking comment received an automatic response.
A quieter, faster kind of giving
Scott, 55, has spent the past five years giving away her fortune at an extraordinary pace.
Through Yield Giving, she donated about $2 billion in gifts to 199 organizations in 2024, bringing her total lifetime giving to about $19.25 billion, according to her website.
Her approach is notable for its speed and simplicity: she offers unrestricted grants to small and midsize nonprofits, allowing them to use the money however they see fit.
“Generosity is generative,” she wrote in a 2021 essay on her website. “Sharing makes more.”
“Each unique expression of generosity will have value far beyond what we can imagine or live to see,” she wrote in a 2021 Medium post explaining her philosophy.
Still richer than when she divorced Bezos
Scott received a 4% stake in Amazon after her divorce, then worth about $36 billion, instantly making her one of the richest women in the world.
Despite her continued giving — and the latest 42% stake reduction — she remains wealthier than when she left her marriage.
That’s because Amazon shares have more than doubled since early 2019, boosting her residual holdings and ensuring her fortune, estimated at around $41.2 billion as of Wednesday, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994, remains the company’s largest individual shareholder and continues to file annual disclosures on Scott’s behalf due to his voting rights arrangement.
A low-profile billionaire with a big impact
Unlike Bezos — who now focuses on space exploration, media, and philanthropy through the Bezos Earth Fund — Scott has kept an unusually low public profile.
She rarely grants interviews or comments on her donations, often revealing gifts months later through Yield Giving’s website.
Her consistent selling or gifting of Amazon stock has become a barometer of her philanthropic activity, even if the specifics remain opaque.
Whether her latest 42% cut signals a new wave of giving or a strategic portfolio move, it underscores Scott’s singular commitment: to give away most of her wealth in her lifetime — and do it quietly.
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