Jeff Bezos has sold more than $4bn (£3.2bn) worth of his shares in Amazon over the past few days.

The Amazon founder and executive chairman sold nearly 12 million shares of Amazon stock worth more than $2bn (£1.58bn) on 7 and 8 February, according to a statement he filed with federal regulators.

The collective value of the shares in the tech giant was just over $2.04bn (£1.62bn), according to the listed price totals. The stocks were grouped in five blocks of between one million and more than 3.2 million.

He had sold another 12 million shares for roughly the same price days before, filings show.

Last week, Amazon said Bezos would sell up to 50 million of his shares in the firm, which have an estimated market value of $8.4bn (£6.65bn).

Read more on Sky News:
What went wrong for The Body Shop?
Inflation rate remains at better than expected

The sale plan was adopted on 8 November last year and Bezos plans to have it completed by 31 January 2025, according to the company’s latest annual report.

Meta and Amazon values surge as Huawei and folding phones take a bite out of Apple’s stock

Merger between Amazon and Roomba maker iRobot abandoned over competition concerns

Chloe Macdermott: Google and Amazon told to act after woman’s death following suicide pact

The businessman stepped down as Amazon’s chief executive in 2021 to spend more time on his other projects, including the rocket company Blue Origin, and his philanthropy.

In 2022 the billionaire revealed plans to give away most of his $124bn (£110bn) fortune during his lifetime.

Mr Bezos told CNN that he and his fiancee, the journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sanchez, were “building the capacity to be able to give away this money”.

He said the money would go to causes that work to tackle climate change and to support people who can unify humanity.

Related posts:

Facebook to label all posts about vaccines with WHO information Social media bosses should face jail over worst content, says police watchdog chief T-Mobile confirms more than 40 million customers’ data stolen in ‘sophisticated cyberattack’ Ground-breaking telescope fires boosters to reach final ‘parking spot’ – a million miles from Earth Giraffes may have evolved long necks to headbutt love rivals, study suggests How the UK is about to send its first rocket into space Microsoft in fresh bid to get Activision Blizzard takeover past UK regulator Elon Musk’s X removes Holocaust denial post after days of criticism Workplace catfishing? Nearly half of UK workers ‘would use AI to help write CV’ NASA mission to return with ‘pristine’ samples from asteroid ‘which could one day hit Earth’ Meta defends plans for encrypted Instagram chats despite concerns over child abuse PM’s U-turns weren’t really about net zero – but playing politics with climate change is a big risk