$ cat ./records/microsoft-issues-a-record-32-billion-special-dividend-2004.txt
Microsoft issues a record $32 billion special dividend
[RECORD.TXT] · cat --full
In 2004 Microsoft announced a one-time special dividend of $3.00 per share — about $32 billion in total — then the largest cash payout in corporate history, part of a plan to return up to $75 billion to shareholders. As the biggest shareholder, Bill Gates received more than $3 billion, which he donated to the Gates Foundation. The payout reflected the extraordinary cash Microsoft's Windows-and-Office monopoly generated.
Source: https://www.plansponsor.com/microsoft-shareholders-sanction-32b-special-dividend/
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Related Accomplishments
2026
Gates becomes 'much poorer' in 2026 as he accelerates giving and slips down the wealth rankings
Bill Gates's net worth fell sharply in 2026 as he accelerated his giving, with trackers noting he had become 'much poorer' — Forbes pegged him around $104 billion and 19th on its global ranking, down from his long reign near the top — as he transfers the bulk of his fortune to the Gates Foundation ahead of its 2045 closure. Gates has said he wants to give away about 99% of his wealth and does not want to be remembered as having 'died rich.' Differences between wealth trackers' methodologies, particularly how charitable pledges are counted, produced a wide range of estimates.
February 2026
Gates told Nadella his $1 billion OpenAI bet would 'burn'; Microsoft now holds a ~27% stake
Satya Nadella revealed that Bill Gates had warned him his early $1 billion bet on OpenAI was a mistake, telling the Microsoft CEO 'yeah, you're going to burn this billion dollars.' The gamble instead became one of the most consequential in tech: a 2025 OpenAI restructuring left Microsoft holding roughly a 27% stake valued around $135 billion, alongside a deal for OpenAI to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of Azure services. The anecdote, surfacing in early 2026, highlighted Gates's continued skepticism even as Microsoft's AI bet paid off.
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