How Much Money Would Every American Get If Jeff Bezos Distributed All of His Amazon Shares Equally?

Amazon co-founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos at the Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on 15 August 2022.
Billy Bennight / AdMedia / Shutterstock.com

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Jeff Bezos has a staggering amount of wealth. With a net worth over $200 billion, Bezos is one of the five richest people in the world. Much of Bezos’ wealth is actually in the shares of stock he owns in the company he founded, Amazon.

But what if Bezos split his shares up with every American?

We’ll break down how many shares of Amazon Bezos still has, about how much those shares are worth and how rich you’d get if Bezos gave all his shares away evenly to every American.

How Many Shares of Amazon Does Jeff Bezos Have?

According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) filings, Bezos still holds around 884,000,000 shares of Amazon stock. This is after cashing out over $5 billion worth of stock in June and July of 2025.

At current Amazon stock prices, this means Bezos’ shares are still worth a staggering $205 billion! This makes up a majority of his over $240 billion net worth, and it’s fair to say — when Amazon does well, Bezos get richer and richer.

How Many Shares of Amazon Stock Would Each American Get?

But what if Bezos decided he wanted to spread his wealth, and directly give each and every American an equal portion of all the Amazon shares he owns?

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First, that would be amazing. But second, I want to know exactly how many shares I’d get, and what that would be worth in today’s dollars?

According to the Population Clock at the U.S. Census Bureau, there are currently 342,441,111 Americans alive today (give or take a few thousand by the day).

This means if we split Bezos’ 884 million shares of Amazon stock evenly, every American alive today would get 2.58 shares of Amazon stock. While this doesn’t sound like a lot — it’s more than nothing!

But wait, what if minors were not eligible, and only adults could receive shares?

Since about 10.75% of the population are under age 18, that means only 305,628,691 would receive shares. These bumps share ownership up to 2.89 per person.

At current prices (around $232 per share), this means every American would receive around $670.48 worth of value in their Amazon shares.

What If You Held Onto Those Shares of Amazon for 10 Years?

Ok, while $670 is not life-changing money, it’s better than nothing. But what if you decided to hang on to those Amazon shares for the next 10 years instead of cashing it out?

Over the last 10 years, Amazon stock has averaged a 25% return per year. This far outpaces the S&P 500 and many other funds.

Here’s what would happen to your Amazon stock if you continue to get 25% returns for the next 10 years:

Years Future Value (25%)
Year 0 $670.48
Year 1 $838.10
Year 2 $1,047.63
Year 3 $1,309.53
Year 4 $1,636.91
Year 5 $2,046.14
Year 6 $2,557.68
Year 7 $3,197.10
Year 8 $3,996.37
Year 9 $4,995.47
Year 10 $6,244.33

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You could end up with over $6,200 in value if Amazon continued its amazing run.

Now, 25% annual returns might not be possible going forward, but owning stocks can be a good way to grow your wealth.

So, what would you do with 2.89 shares of Amazon stock? Would you cash it out? Or hold on to it?

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