Steve Ballmer Holds About $170 Billion in Microsoft Stock

Former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer remains the software company's largest individual shareholder, with a stake estimated at about $170 billion, according to an analysis published by TheStreet on October 24, 2026 and carried by Yahoo Finance.

The estimate rests on roughly 319 million shares. Ballmer reported holding 333,254,734 shares in a Form 4 filed after he left the company in 2014, and Bloomberg's Billionaires Index has estimated he sold about 14 million shares to help fund his $2 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers that year. Valued against Microsoft's close of $532.95 on October 21, 2026, the remaining position works out to about 4.3% of shares outstanding.

Because Ballmer is no longer an executive or director and his stake sits under the 5% reporting threshold, his exact holdings are not disclosed.

Bill Gates holds Microsoft shares worth roughly $55 billion as of October 2026, and chief executive Satya Nadella about $489 million, TheStreet reported.

Institutions hold more. Microsoft's most recent proxy statement lists Vanguard with 555,988,240 shares, or 7.48%, and BlackRock with 540,020,228 shares, or about 7.30%.

Ballmer was Microsoft's 30th employee and became chief executive in 2000, stepping down in February 2014.

This story was first reported by Yahoo Finance Singapore.