The founders of Facebook, Google, and WhatsApp sold billions in stock this year
Gates sold more than $1.5 billion (£1 billion) of Microsoft stock this year, according to Sqoop.com.
Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page sold more than $1.6 billion (£1 billion) of their company stock between them, while former Twitter CEO Evan Williams sold $359 million of shares in the company he helped set up.
Sqoop doesn't say whether these are preplanned sales or not. The raw data doesn't mean the executives are bailing on their businesses.
Here's the list of the top 10 insider sellers as ranked by Sqoop:
| Company | Seller | Amount |
| Microsoft | Bill Gates | $1,513,748,353 |
| Sergey Brin | $867,986,934 | |
| Larry Page | $857,259,351 | |
| Jan Koum | $560,780,977 | |
| Carnival | Micky Arison | $433,700,000 |
| Evan Williams | $359,972,721 | |
| Best Buy | Richard Schulze | $292,219,863 |
| Family Dollar Stores | Howard Levine | $278,809,852 |
| Alphabet | Sergey Brin | $247,339,218 |
| CBS | Les Moonves | $237,776,188 |
Tech insiders hold six spots on the top-10 list, with Sergey Brin appearing twice after setting up Google's new umbrella company, Alphabet. WhatsApp founder Jan Koum is new to the list from the first half of the year.
Over the 12 months, Sqoop has tracked the amount of money company insiders have made from stock sales as disclosed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The list of the top sellers is compiled by totaling the top 200 insider sales for the year and then separating out institutional investors to get company insiders.
Company insiders can sell off stock as long as they inform the market and only use information available to other investors to make their decision.