Jeff Bezos, the famous founder of e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), stepped down from the chief executive role in 2021 after nearly three decades. He handed the reins to Andy Jassy and retained a less active role as Executive Chairman.

Since stepping down, Bezos has focused on other ventures like Blue Origin, his aerospace company, and building the world’s tallest sailing yacht at a reported $485mn cost. Two weeks ago, he did something strange; he purchased one Amazon share for $114.77 on the open markets, a recent SEC filing revealed. It marked Bezos’s first such purchase since 2002.

Amazon’s share price closed at $123.43 on Friday, giving Bezos a nearly $9 gain. Why Bezos dipped into his massive pockets to purchase one share is mysterious. We can speculate why;

• For the lulz.
• He mistakenly clicked the buy button on his stock brokerage account.
• His partner, Lauren Sanchez, did it.
• He had some money left over from a business deal and invested it like a wise, frugal businessman.
• He’s building a college fund for one of his kids.
• He’s trolling like his fellow rocket-loving billionaire friend Elon Musk.
• He’s considering becoming a day trader.

We’ll go with trolling, given that Bezos’s purchase was reported the following day at 4:20 p.m. New York time. Consult Google if you don’t already get the joke (hint: it has something to do with cannabis). The same filing showed that Bezos gifted 69,290 shares worth roughly $8mn to an unnamed nonprofit organization.

Bezos has sold roughly $30bn of shares since Amazon’s 1997 public listing. He still owns a 9.7% stake worth roughly $123bn at current prices, making him Amazon’s largest individual shareholder by a wide margin.

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