Microsoft is preparing to pay former CEO Steve Ballmer about $1 billion in annual dividends.

Steve Ballmer, currently the 6th richest person in the world, is Microsoft’s largest individual shareholder.

In his last ownership disclosure in 2014, Ballmer then held 333.2 million shares of Microsoft, representing about 4% of the company’s shares.

According to data from Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, his stake is now worth $128 billion after increasing by $42 billion in 2023 thanks to a 55% increase in Microsoft’s stock price.

Joining the company in 1980 as its 30th employee, Ballmer accumulated his shares during his 34-year career at Microsoft.

He then attained the position of CEO of Microsoft in 2000, near the peak of the “dot-com bubble,” and resigned in 2014 when current CEO Satya Nadella assumed the leadership role.

Steve Ballmer is the 9th person in US history to have a net worth exceeding $100 billion. Source: Business Insider
Business Insider reported that Microsoft paid a $2.79 per share dividend in 2023, equivalent to an annual dividend payment of about $930 million to Ballmer based on his stake in the company.

The payout is expected to increase in 2024, with the giant corporation recently increasing its dividend by 10% to a payout of $3 per share per year. That equates to an annual dividend payment of $999.6 million for Ballmer in 2024, and could be even higher if Microsoft continues its trend of increasing payouts.

Analysts predict that it is likely that this billionaire’s annual dividend payment will reach $1 billion by 2024 and continue to increase in the coming years.

If that happens, Ballmer’s huge holdings could put him closer to becoming the fourth richest person in the world, just a few billion dollars behind Larry Ellison and Bill Gates.

It must be added that Gates has significantly diversified his assets after leaving Microsoft and switched to cash and other public stocks.

In fact, in 2014, this billionaire also owned about 4% of Microsoft shares, including 330 million shares in the company. However, multiple divestments in recent years left him with just over 1% of the software giant’s shares.