Satya Nadella's net worth: The Microsoft CEO’s salary & billion-dollar fortune
In less than ten years as CEO at Microsoft, Satya Nadella has led the company through a remarkable transformation, blazing new — and lucrative — paths in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the gaming industry. And judging from his paychecks, Nadella’s many efforts have been handsomely rewarded.
With his unassuming and likable demeanor, Nadella seems quite different from other tech bigwigs, encouraging cooperation from his employees rather than competition — a rarity in Silicon Valley. In fact, Fortune magazine voted him “most underrated CEO” six years in a row.
Born in India, Nadella moved to the U.S. for college, then took a job at Microsoft as an early software developer in the 1990s before quickly rising up through the ranks.
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Working at Microsoft (MSFT) since the 1990s provided Nadella with intimate knowledge of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, which he leveraged to build Azure, one of the world’s largest cloud infrastructures. Under Nadella’s helm, between 2011 and 2013, Microsoft’s revenues from the Cloud division grew by $4 billion, and he was promoted to CEO in 2014.
In fact, Nadella has been the most successful CEO Microsoft has ever had, achieving a record market cap of $2 trillion in 2022 — and making the company even more valuable than when Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates, was running it. (Gates’ efforts helped shares reach a peak valuation of $614 billion back in 1999; adjusted for inflation, that’s equivalent to $1.1 trillion today.)
What is Satya Nadella’s net worth?
Nadella’s consecutive string of hits has placed him among the richest people on earth, with Bloomberg reporting he had amassed a net worth of $1 billion as of July 2023, owing to equity grants, salary, stock options, and dividends. This figure was also shared by Fortune a day later. Similarly, market data aggregator Wallmine reported his net worth to be at least $929 million (but probably more) as of Sept. 2023.
However, Frank Shaw, a spokesperson from Microsoft, refuted the claim, stating that Nadella “does not have a net worth of a billion dollars or more.”
So, what’s the deal behind Nadella’s hefty haul?
What is Satya Nadella’s salary?
There is no arguing that Nadella’s salary as Microsoft’s chief executive is enormous. According to corporate filings, Nadella was paid a cool $55 million in 2022, including $50 million in stock options and bonus incentives. 96 percent of Mr. Nadella’s salary was performance-based, which was a change from his incentive plan in 2021, when 71% was tied to company performance.
Nadella’s incentives are connected to the profitability of some of the company’s most important revenue streams, such as revenue from Microsoft’s Cloud platform, user growth in Microsoft Teams, Xbox subscriber growth, and growth at LinkedIn, one of the company’s newest verticals.
Consider the fact that Microsoft has exceeded expectations in each of these categories, and you can see just how quickly Nadella’s wealth has multiplied.
Prior to his ascent to the C-Suite, Nadella was earning just $669,000 in 2013 with $17.6 million in stock options and bonuses; by 2014, Nadella was making $40 million per year.
How much of Microsoft does Satya Nadella own?
At one point, Nadella owned over 1.5 million shares of Microsoft. According to SEC filings, he sold approximately 840,000 shares on Nov. 22, 2021, for roughly $285 million.
A spokesperson for Microsoft said that Nadella trimmed his holdings for reasons of personal diversification; he had also exceeded the required number of shares owned that was set by Microsoft’s board of directors.
Additionally, in 2022, the state of Washington had implemented a long-term capital gains tax of 7%, so the timing of his sale made sense.
Post-sale, Nadella retained more than 800,000 shares of Microsoft, although he is not the company’s largest shareholder. That distinction goes to Bill Gates, whose ginormous stake is reportedly valued in the ballpark of $20 billion.
What properties does Satya Nadella own?
In 2000, Nadella purchased a spacious, 4,050-square-foot home in Clyde Hill, Washington, just east of Seattle, for $1.8 million. It boasted spectacular vistas that encompassed Lake Washington and the Olympic Mountains, although Nadella sold this home in 2016 for $2.8 million.
Nadella and his family currently reside in another home they purchased in 2013 for $422,500. Located in Bellevue, another suburb of Seattle, this home’s 2023 estimated value has appreciated past the $3 million mark. It features a two-story library, home theater, wine cellar, and numerous areas for outdoor entertaining, including a Jacuzzi.
What was Satya Nadella’s early life like?
Satya Nadella was born in India, in Hyderabad, in the southern part of the country.
He enjoyed a stable childhood; Prabhavati, his father, was an administrator for the Indian government, while Bukkapuram, his mother, worked as a Sanskrit lecturer.
Nadella studied electrical engineering at Mangalore University’s Manipal Institute of Technology. He excelled and was accepted at the University of Wisconsin in 1988. He moved to the U.S. to study computer science and became a U.S. citizen.
After receiving his degree in 1990, Nadella moved on to the University of Chicago, where he received an MBA from the Chicago Booth School of Business in 1997 by attending classes on the weekends.
Stacking success after success as a young academic, Nadella also found time to pursue other life passions, like playing cricket and reading as many books as possible.
Nadella spelled that philosophy out in a February 4, 2014 letter to Microsoft employees after being named CEO at Microsoft.
“Like anyone else, a lot of what I do and how I think has been shaped by my family and my overall life experiences. Many who know me say I am also defined by my curiosity and thirst for learning. I buy more books than I can finish. I sign up for more online courses than I can complete. I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things. So family, curiosity and hunger for knowledge all define me.”