Mark Zuckerberg sold over $1bn worth of Facebook stock in 2016 to fund Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Following in the footsteps of Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also sold more than $1 billion worth of Facebook stock last year to support his philanthropic project, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing released by Facebook, Zuckerberg had about 9.6 million fewer shares at the end of March, compared to the last year. And as per Facebook’s closing share price on Friday, those shares would be valued at more than $1.3 billion.

The stock was sold at an average price of $139.87, for a total transaction of $52,497,686.84.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a philanthropic investment vehicle, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced in late 2015 after the birth of their daughter. They have also committed a $3 billion fund over the next decade to support the research process that will try finding cure to all diseases.

Despite his big stock sale, Zuckerberg still controls 59.7 percent of Facebook’s voting power, that is slightly down from 60.1 percent of the voting control from last year. According to Forbes, Mark Zuckerberg's present net worth is more than USD 58 billion.

Recently, Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos was also in news for selling about $1 billion in Amazon stocks to finance his venture Blue Origin, a rocket company which aims to launch paying passengers on 11-minute space rides starting next year.