It didn’t take long for the markets to unravel after Trump’s tariff sledgehammer came down on 2 April; but for a few powerful executives, including Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the writing was already on the wall.
Mark Zuckerberg quietly disposed of over $733 million in Meta shares between January and March, weeks before Trump stunned markets with his trade restrictions.
The Meta CEO offloaded around 1.1 million shares through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and its related foundation, operating under a 10b5-1 plan he had set up back in August 2024.
The timing has raised more than a few eyebrows.
Zuckerberg’s selloff came as Meta stock hovered near its peak, even hitting over $736 on Valentine’s Day. By the time the tariffs hit, that momentum had vanished. Meta’s shares spiralled down by over 30%, dragging his net worth with them. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, he’s now sitting at $178 billion—his lowest this year.
But he wasn’t alone.
In January, Oracle CEO Safra Catz cashed in 3.8 million shares worth around $705 million, right when the company’s stock was trading at record highs. “I have always exercised my options in line with compensation schedules,” she had said previously, but this time, the scale was monumental. With the windfall, Catz entered the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a $2.4 billion net worth.
JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon also lightened his load. On 20 February, he sold 866,361 shares for roughly $233.8 million. Then in April, he added another $31.5 million to the tally—bringing his total sales above a quarter of a billion dollars this year.
Nikesh Arora, who runs cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks, started earlier. He’s been unloading shares in stages since late 2024. By April, he had sold over 2.36 million shares worth $565 million, though it cost him around $100 million to exercise them.
Then there’s Max de Groen of Nutanix and Chuck Davis of Axis Capital Holdings. De Groen moved 5.5 million shares, pocketing close to $410 million. Davis wasn’t far behind—he offloaded 4.3 million shares for just under $400 million. It’s worth noting Davis also sits at the helm of private equity firm Stone Point Capital.
Palantir’s president, Stephen Cohen, sold 4.06 million shares and collected a tidy $337 million—right as the company’s stock doubled between January and February.
Eric Lefkofsky, head of health-tech firm Tempus AI, stuck to his quarterly 1% divestment rule but still managed to shift more than 4 million shares, raking in $231.5 million.
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos cashed out as well—199,063 shares for nearly $195 million. His newly minted 10b5-1 plan will keep the sales going through February 2026.
Even Dutch Bros chairman Travis Boersma joined the party, selling 2.5 million shares over five days in February for about $189.6 million.
It’s hard to look at the scale of these transactions and ignore the pattern. Each sale occurred before the April 2 tariff bombshell. Each executive sold during a market high. And then—issues.
While they may point to pre-scheduled trades and routine compensation plans, the optics are problematic. The timing is too tight. The profits, too neat. And for retail investors, by the time the market collapses, the big players are already out.
