Not many people remember this, but when Satya Nadella took the reins as CEO of Microsoft in February 2014, the company was struggling to find its place amidst a tech landscape dominated by Apple’s smartphones, Google’s Android operating system, and Amazon’s cloud computing services.
Under the leadership of Steve Ballmer, Microsoft had undertaken a contentious $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s mobile phone business in 2013. That deal ultimately failed, resulting in billions in write-downs and thousands of layoffs.
But Nadella did not turn around the company overnight. Over the next few years, he shifted Microsoft’s business model even further into cloud computing by expanding Azure and its subscription-based services. He also made strategic acquisitions, including LinkedIn, GitHub, and Minecraft, while investing billions into artificial intelligence before it became a household name.
In fact, you could say that Nadella was instrumental in Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, as he even personally stepped in to serve as mediator when OpenAI’s board briefly fired its CEO and co-founder, Sam Altman, in the fall of 2023.
Although Microsoft and OpenAI renegotiated their once-exclusive partnership, Microsoft hasn’t lost momentum. Their newest agreement, announced in April 2026, gave each to greater independence and allowed Microsoft to continue to expand its own AI capabilities through Azure’s cloud services.
MSFT crossed the trillion-dollar valuation threshold on April 25, 2019, and it hasn’t looked back since. In its most recent earnings, the company reported that Azure revenue grew by 43% year-over-year. These results show that Microsoft isn’t just one of the founders of the digital era—it’s very much a power player, and as the driver behind its innovation, Nadella himself has been rewarded handsomely through salary increases, bonuses, and enormous stock awards.
How much of MSFT does Satya Nadella own? Is he the biggest institutional shareholder?
As of Microsoft’s latest Proxy statement for fiscal 2025, filed in September 2025, Satya Nadella owned 900,572 shares of Microsoft, equating to about 0.01% of the company’s total outstanding shares.
Given MSFT’s October 19 closing share price of $533.52, those shares would be worth a whopping $480.4 million.
But Nadella isn’t Microsoft’s biggest individual shareholder—not by a long shot.
That distinction actually belongs to Steve Ballmer, who is estimated to still own approximately 319 million shares, or roughly 4% of Microsoft. Despite Ballmer stepping down amid Microsoft’s struggles, he still owns more than 350 times Nadella’s stake.
And in case you’re wondering, even Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates still owns about 103 million shares, valued at approximately $43 billion. That’s substantially more than Nadella—even though Gates has spent decades giving away his fortune.
How much stock does Satya Nadella get as part of his compensation package?
To say that Microsoft’s board of directors has been happy with Nadella’s efforts is an understatement. In the company’s latest Proxy statement, published in October 2025, the board stated that “Our exceptional fiscal year 2025 results demonstrate that Satya Nadella and his leadership team have positioned Microsoft as a clear artificial intelligence leader for this generational technology shift, enabling Microsoft to drive long-term growth through innovation, security, and quality.”
Crediting Nadella for the company’s 15% annual revenue growth and 17% increase in operating income, the esteemed CEO received a 117.00% payout in annual cash incentives and a 103.69% payout in performance stock awards.
Translated into dollars and cents, Nadella compensation can be broken down as follows:
Satya Nadella’s fiscal 2025 total compensation
|
Category |
Amount |
|---|---|
|
Base salary |
$2,500,000 |
|
Stock awards |
$84,245,496 |
|
Annual cash incentives |
$9,555,000 |
|
Other compensation |
$196,294 |
|
Total fiscal 2025 compensation |
$96,496,790 |
|
Source: SEC |
In total, approximately 87% of Nadella’s compensation was in stock awards.
The $96.5 million compensation Nadella received in fiscal 2025 was an increase of about 22% from fiscal 2024, when he made $79.1 million.
More on CEO’s wealth:
- Steve Jobs’ net worth: How rich Apple’s founder could have been
- Warren Buffett’s net worth: A look at his fortune in retirement
- Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth: How the Facebook founder hit $200 billion
Microsoft’s largest institutional shareholders
Microsoft’s largest institutional shareholder is The Vanguard Group. It holds 664,882,153 shares, or 8.95% of Microsoft, worth approximately $354.7 billion.
BlackRock Inc. is the next largest. It holds 540,020,228 shares, or approximately 7.30% of the company’s total outstanding shares. Its stake is worth $288.1 billion as of MSFT’s October 19 close.
