In 2025, technology giants contributed significantly to the rally in the U.S. stock market. Executives from these companies also featured prominently in insider selling transactions, with billionaire founders, CEOs, and directors collectively cashing out over $16 billion.
The largest sale came from Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, who began offloading shares coinciding with his high-profile wedding to Lauren Sanchez. The world's third-richest person ultimately sold 25 million Amazon shares, raising $5.7 billion.
The tech stock frenzy fueled by artificial intelligence also dramatically increased the wealth of less prominent executives like Arista Networks Inc.'s Jayshree Ullal. The long-time CEO of the networking equipment company, a rare non-founder billionaire, sold nearly $1 billion in stock, seeing her net worth surge to over $6 billion last year.
Nearly all major insider selling transactions, including those by Ullal and Bezos, utilized 10b5-1 trading plans, which disclose selling intentions in advance.
According to data from Washington Service, which tracks insider transactions, the following list details the largest sales of 2025. The data tracks sales disclosed in filings up to December 30, including sales reported by directors on behalf of companies.
1. Jeff Bezos Jeff Bezos Amazon.com Chairman Total Shares Sold: 25,000,000 Total Sale Value: $5,654,270,394 Bezos sold 25 million Amazon shares in 2025 through a pre-arranged trading plan, with the selling program initiated the same weekend as his wedding in Venice. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows that between June and July, Bezos sold $5.7 billion in stock, pushing his cumulative sales since 2002 past $50 billion. Since founding the e-commerce giant Amazon, Bezos has consistently pursued investment diversification, often using proceeds from sales to fund his space company Blue Origin. Amazon declined to comment.
2. Safra Catz Safra Catz Former Oracle CEO Total Shares Sold: 12,500,000 Total Sale Value: $2,531,343,305 The former Oracle CEO has a history of quickly selling acquired shares, a pattern that continued in 2025. Catz exercised and sold millions of performance stock options acquired in the first half of the year through a 10b5-1 plan, as Oracle's stock hit record highs. Oracle declined to comment.
3. Michael Dell Michael Dell Dell Technologies Inc. CEO Total Shares Sold: 16,253,968 Total Sale Value: $2,222,753,261 In December, Dell and his wife Susan announced a headline-grabbing plan to donate $6.25 billion to launch so-called "Trump Accounts" for 25 million American children. Part of this funding may have come from stock he sold throughout the year. He frequently sells stock in multi-billion dollar blocks and does not use 10b5-1 plans. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index indicates he sold over $2 billion in stock in two separate transactions in June and October 2025, bringing his cumulative sales above $13 billion. Dell still holds about 40% of the company. A representative for Dell Technologies did not respond to a request for comment.
4. Jensen Huang Jensen Huang NVIDIA CEO Total Shares Sold: 6,000,000 Total Sale Value: $1,048,586,165 When Jensen Huang initially filed to sell 6 million NVIDIA shares, the proceeds were estimated at approximately $865 million. However, the stock's continued sharp ascent ultimately pushed the value of his sale beyond the $1 billion mark. Huang's selling occurred as NVIDIA became the world's first company to reach a $4 trillion market capitalization in July, and later the first to surpass $5 trillion in October. NVIDIA did not respond to a request for comment.
5. Jayshree Ullal Arista Networks CEO Total Shares Sold: 7,560,143 Total Sale Value: $975,839,433 In 2025, Ullal led networking equipment supplier Arista Networks to record highs, with its stock surging nearly 50% and hitting a record in October before paring some gains to finish the year up 19%. Ullal sold over $975 million in stock during the autumn. A spokesperson for Arista did not respond to a request for comment.
6. Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg Meta Platforms, Inc. CEO Total Shares Sold: 1,387,605 Total Sale Value: $944,785,836 As Meta embraced artificial intelligence, its stock climbed 13% during the year. During this period, Zuckerberg, along with his wife's Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and affiliated foundations, cashed out nearly $945 million in shares. Zuckerberg has stated he plans to give away 99% of his holdings during his lifetime and still holds a 13% stake in the company he co-founded. Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
7. Max de Groen (representing Bain Capital) Nutanix Inc. Director Total Shares Sold: 10,980,467 Total Sale Value: $830,759,670 This director of cloud computing company Nutanix Inc., acting on behalf of Bain Capital, sold two-thirds of the firm's stake in the company over the past year. Last summer, the Boston-based investment firm converted convertible bonds into 16.9 million shares, and de Groen stated in June 2024 that there was no intention to sell them. Bain Capital sold nearly 11 million shares in two transactions in March and June, registered under de Groen's name. Although the stock hit a record high in May, Nutanix saw double-digit declines after lowering its 2026 revenue forecast in November. Bain Capital declined to comment.
8. Frank Slootman Snowflake Chairman Total Shares Sold: 3,437,162 Total Sale Value: $757,721,569 Since stepping down as CEO of the cloud computing company in 2024, Slootman has continued to exercise options and sell stock via a 10b5-1 plan. He remains chairman of the Montana-based company, which did not respond to a request for comment on the stock sales.
9. Nikesh Arora Nikesh Arora Palo Alto Networks CEO Total Shares Sold: 4,000,000 Total Sale Value: $738,421,375 Arora, a former SoftBank Group executive who joined cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks with a lucrative package in 2018, has continued his pattern of monthly option exercises and sales under a 10b5-1 plan, cashing out nearly $740 million for the year. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
10. Baiju Bhatt Robinhood Markets Director Total Shares Sold: 7,697,404 Total Sale Value: $724,926,811 The former co-CEO of Robinhood sold 7.7 million shares throughout the year, with millions of those shares not part of a pre-established trading plan. Bhatt did not respond to a request for comment.
