Amazon.com, Inc. has no controlling owner. Founder Jeff Bezos is the largest single shareholder at 8.8% according to the 2026 proxy statement, with the balance held by index managers, retail investors and employees. The Delaware-incorporated company carried a market capitalisation near $2.87 trillion on August 19, 2026.
Amazon ownership at a glance
The table below summarises the ownership position as reported in Amazon’s 2026 proxy statement and market data from August 2026.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Ownership type | Public company, single class of common stock |
| Parent company | None — independent |
| Largest shareholders | Jeff Bezos (8.8%), BlackRock (6.8%), Vanguard (6.8%), State Street (3.6%) |
| Market capitalisation | $2.87 trillion (August 19, 2026) |
| Last acquisition | Globalstar, $11.57 billion, announced April 14, 2026, not yet closed |
| Founded | July 5, 1994, Bellevue, Washington |
| Headquarters | 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, Washington |
| CEO | Andy Jassy, appointed July 2021 |
Who owns Amazon today?
Bezos held 950,434,581 shares as of February 24, 2026, the record date used in Amazon’s 2026 proxy statement. That position was worth about $255 billion in mid-May 2026.
Executives and directors together held roughly 954 million shares, or 8.9%. Excluding Bezos, the other 16 executives and directors held 3.4 million shares, valued at $920 million in mid-May 2026.
Jassy is the second-largest individual insider with 2,313,536 shares, worth about $621 million on the same date. The ten biggest stockholders listed in the proxy owned 36% of the company, a block valued at roughly $1 trillion.
MacKenzie Scott received about 4% of the shares in her 2019 divorce settlement with Bezos. She has sold down that holding and does not appear as a 5% beneficial owner in the 2026 filing. Amazon employees hold stock through restricted stock unit grants that vest over several years.
Who controls Amazon?
Control tracks economic ownership. Amazon has a single class of common stock with one vote per share, so no shareholder holds voting power beyond their stake.
Bezos is Executive Chair of the board and Jassy is President, CEO and a director. At the annual meeting on May 20, 2026, shareholders re-elected Bezos, Jassy and the rest of the director slate. The same ballot included a shareholder proposal asking the board to adopt a mandatory independent chair policy.
An 8.8% stake cannot decide an election or carry a resolution on its own. Amazon’s bylaws also let holders of at least 25% of outstanding shares call a special meeting.
Who are Amazon’s largest shareholders?
Institutions hold close to two-thirds of the stock, with insiders and retail investors splitting the rest.
Amazon share ownership by holder type, August 2026 (%)
BlackRock and Vanguard each held about 6.8% in mid-May 2026, followed by State Street at 3.6%. Those stakes sit mostly inside index products, so they rise and fall with Amazon’s weighting in the S&P 500 rather than through active decisions.
Largest Amazon shareholders by stake (%)
Bezos has trimmed his position steadily through pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans, including sales of more than 21.6 million shares between July 3 and July 24, 2025 for over $4.8 billion. He remains the largest identifiable individual holder.
Who are the biggest investors in Amazon?
The only venture round Amazon ever raised came in June 1996, when Kleiner Perkins put in $8 million at a $60 million valuation and John Doerr took a board seat he held until 2010. Every investor since has bought on the open market.
- Jeff Bezos — 8.8%, founder and Executive Chair
- BlackRock — 6.8%, index and ETF funds
- Vanguard Group — 6.8%, index and ETF funds
- State Street — 3.6%, index and ETF funds
- Andy Jassy — 2.3 million shares, largest insider after Bezos
Amazon is also a large investor in its own right. It is the biggest outside backer of Anthropic at roughly $8 billion committed, and it appears on OpenAI’s shareholder register after a $50 billion cheque in February 2026.
Is Amazon publicly traded?
Yes. Amazon trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker AMZN and has done so since its initial public offering on May 15, 1997.
The company sold 3 million shares at $18 that day, raising $54 million at a $438 million valuation, and closed the session at $23.50. Four stock splits have followed, most recently a 20-for-1 split in June 2022.
Amazon’s scale has made it one of the few public routes into private AI exposure, alongside the strategic stakes tracked across the highest-funded AI startups and Nvidia’s own equity deals.
FAQ
Who founded Amazon?
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon on July 5, 1994 in Bellevue, Washington. The site launched as an online bookstore in July 1995. Bezos was CEO until July 2021 and is now Executive Chair.
Does Jeff Bezos still own Amazon?
Bezos owns 8.8% of Amazon as of the 2026 proxy statement, around 950 million shares. He is the largest individual shareholder but holds nowhere near a controlling stake.
Does Amazon own Anthropic?
No. Amazon has invested about $8 billion in Anthropic and is its largest outside investor, but the stake is a minority position with no governance control over the AI company.
Who owns the largest share of Amazon?
Jeff Bezos, with 8.8%. BlackRock and Vanguard follow at roughly 6.8% each, though both hold their shares on behalf of index fund investors rather than for their own account.
Does Amazon have a parent company?
No. Amazon.com, Inc. is an independent Delaware corporation listed on the Nasdaq. It owns subsidiaries including AWS, Whole Foods Market, MGM, Twitch and Zoox, but has no parent above it.
