San Francisco, Feb 14 (IANS): Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has sold 24 million shares of the company in recent days worth more than $4 billion.

The first sale of 12 million shares was announced in a regulatory filing on February 9, followed by another 12 million share sale on Tuesday, reports BBC.

Bezos has also handed away Amazon shares as part of his philanthropic efforts, most recently in 2022. He last sold Amazon shares in 2021.

His sales of Amazon shares come after they have increased by almost 70 per cent in the past year, according to the report.

Earlier this month, the company said that Bezos is planning to sell at least 50 million Amazon shares over the next year.

According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Amazon, where Bezos currently serves as executive chair, said its billionaire founder had a trading plan for selling a maximum of 50 million shares.

The sales will occur "over a period" ending January 25 of next year "subject to certain conditions,” the filing read, reports Fox Business.

Bezos, who recently turned 60, owns nearly one billion shares of Amazon stock. Seven other top Amazon insiders took up trading plans for offloading Amazon shares, according to the SEC filing.