Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella's total compensation for fiscal 2026 was 6 percent less than the previous year. This figure, detailed in the Notice of Annual Shareholder Meeting and Proxy Statement 2026, stemmed from annual stock vesting rates.
Nadella received $90.6 million in total pay. This included a $2.5 million base salary, $77.6 million in stock awards, $10.3 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and $259,203 from other sources, mainly for pension contributions and charitable gifts.
For Microsoft's fiscal 2026, ending June 30, revenue reached $331.8 billion, marking an 18 percent increase. Operating profit was 18 percent higher, totaling $155.237 billion, surpassing SatNad's target of $130.96 billion. These financial metrics accounted for 70 percent of the CEO's remuneration goals.
The corporation also saw significant operational growth. The Cloud division's revenue increased by 27 percent to $214.4 billion. Furthermore, Microsoft increased its datacenter portfolio by 88 units and secured 30 million paid Copilot seats.
Microsoft stated that "The scale of adoption reflects growing customer confidence in Microsoft's ability to deliver enterprise-ready AI capabilities integrated directly into existing workflows." The company also reported delivering 625 Copilot updates throughout the year, indicating a fast pace of innovation.
GitHub reached 225 million users, with 50 million utilizing Copilot, and one in three "pull requests involving an agent." Industry-specific AI services, such as Dragon Copilot for healthcare, are now utilized by "100,000 healthcare providers to help automate administrative and clinical workflows."
While Nadella's compensation decreased, other members of the C-suite saw increases. CFO Amy Hood was awarded $33.7 million, up from $29.5 million. Judson Althoff, Commercial Business CEO, received $33.4 million, and Takeshi Numoto, chief marketing officer, was compensated $15.7 million. President Brad Smith was compensated $33 million.
The financial year also saw the return of $43.8 billion to shareholders. Nadella's pay equates to the average compensation ($215,057) of 420 Microsoft employees.
These developments underscore the intense operational pressures faced by executive leadership within large technology enterprises, especially amidst substantial investment in AI infrastructure and ongoing workforce optimization initiatives.
