In 2025, as the AI boom drove tech stocks to new highs, Silicon Valley's top billionaires were quietly converting "paper wealth" into real money. According to an analysis of insider trading data by Bloomberg, global tech company executives and founders collectively cashed out over $16 billion throughout the year, setting a new recent record. Behind this large-scale selling spree is the stock market frenzy driven by artificial intelligence, as well as the big players' precise timing of the high valuation window.

Bezos leads, AI bull market becomes a "cash machine"

- Jeff Bezos topped the list with $5.7 billion in sales. In June and July this year, the Amazon founder sold 25 million shares of his company's stock, just before his wedding to his fiancée Lauren Sanchez in Venice;  

- Safra Catz, former CEO of Oracle, followed closely with $2.5 billion in sales;  

- Michael Dell, founder of Dell Technologies, cashed out $2.2 billion due to the surge in demand for AI servers;  

- Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, sold $1 billion in shares as the company's market value reached a historic milestone of $5 trillion;  

- Jayshree Ullal, CEO of Arista Networks, saw her personal wealth exceed $6 billion due to the surge in demand for high-speed network equipment, and simultaneously sold nearly $1 billion in shares.

Additionally, Zuckerberg of Meta sold $945 million in shares through his charity foundation, while Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, and Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of Robinhood, each cashed out over $700 million.

Not a spontaneous decision: Most executed through pre-set "10b5-1 plans"

Notably, most of these sales were carried out through pre-set 10b5-1 trading plans—executives had already filed with the SEC for their selling arrangements before the stock price rose, avoiding suspicion of insider trading. This indicates that this cash-out wave was not a short-term speculation, but rather a systematic wealth management strategy aimed at locking in the historical valuation benefits brought by the AI boom.

AI is the core engine: Benefiting from chips to cloud services

The strong performance of tech stocks in 2025 was almost entirely driven by AI:  

- NVIDIA soared in market value due to the shortage of GPUs;  

- Amazon, Microsoft, and Google saw a surge in revenue from AI cloud services and large model APIs;  

- Companies in the AI infrastructure layer, such as network equipment, cybersecurity, and fintech, also experienced a surge.

As Bloomberg noted: "AI is not just a story—it is a real profit engine." The decision of executives to take profits at this time is both a rational choice and a signal of caution regarding the high market level.

AIbase Observation: Amid the euphoria, beware of "paper prosperity"

Although the scale of the cash-out was significant, most tech tycoons still held a large number of shares, with limited selling ratios. However, the collective $16 billion in sales still deserves careful consideration from the market:  

- When founders start large-scale selling, does it mean that AI valuations are approaching a short-term peak?  

- Under high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainties, can tech stocks continue to support a trillion-dollar market cap?