- Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sold more than a million shares last week, per an SEC filing.
- Some of the money will be used to fund the billionaire's chain of nonprofit preschools.
- Day 1 Academies are "Montessori-inspired" schools. The first opened in 2020.
Jeff Bezos sold around 1.1 million Amazon shares last week — and used the money raised to fund his "Montessori-inspired" nonprofit preschools, SEC filings show.
The world's third-richest man sold 431,426 shares on May 29 and 667,260 shares on May 30, with the $117 million raised from the second of those sales going to Day 1 Academies, a chain founded by Bezos.
The nonprofit serves children between the ages of 3 and 5. The first of its schools opened in Des Moines, Washington, in 2020.
Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO in 2021 but remains the company's executive chairman and largest shareholder.
The stock has climbed 17% in 2024, meaning it is outperforming the benchmark S&P 500 but lagging some rival "Magnificent Seven" members, including Nvidia, which has racked up triple-digit gains, and Meta Platforms.
Bezos announced his push into education in 2018, when he unveiled his two philanthropic initiatives: the Day 1 Families Fund and the Day 1 Academies Fund. Both initiatives are funded by the Bezos Day One Fund, to which Bezos committed $2 billion at the time, in a bid to create a network of preschools in which "the child will be the customer."
The schools are directly operated by Bezos' fund, which "creates an opportunity to learn, invent, and improve" upon early childhood education, according to its website.
