Quick Read
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Microsoft (MSFT) cut a $6.8 billion dividend check in fiscal year 2026 while spending $116 billion on AI capex, an amount 4.5 times greater.
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Applied Materials (AMAT) led the other 25 ex-dividend companies that same day at $421 million, less than 7% of Microsoft’s single-day payout.
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Amy Hood committed to staying free cash flow positive in FY2027 even as capex could reach $175 billion, with Azure already crossing $100 billion in annual revenue.
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Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) went ex-dividend on August 20, 2026 at $0.91 a share, cutting a check to holders of record for $6,757,245,950, payable September 10, 2026. That single distribution was the largest of the 26 companies going ex-dividend that day, and it dwarfed the runner-up: Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) at $420,798,270. Marriott (NASDAQ:MAR), SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC), and LKQ (NASDAQ:LKQ) also went ex-dividend the same day, but none came close to Microsoft’s scale.
In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, Microsoft’s capital expenditures ran to $115.948 billion, up from $64,551,000,000 a year earlier. Dividends paid for the full year were $26.445 billion. That is roughly four and a half dollars of capex for every dollar returned to shareholders. Operating cash flow of $182.935 billion financed it, but free cash flow still declined 6.46% year over year.
September Is the Date Circled on Every Income Investor’s Calendar
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Microsoft has now paid $0.91 per share for four consecutive quarters, with ex-dates of November 20, 2025, February 19, 2026, May 21, 2026, and August 20, 2026. The board has historically telegraphed its annual raise in mid-September: last year’s step-up from $0.83 to $0.91 was declared September 15, 2025. That leaves the September announcement as the live question. Redmond is not signaling stress. On the fiscal fourth-quarter call, CFO Amy Hood said Microsoft returned “over $43 billion” to shareholders during the fiscal year through dividends and repurchases, and forecast that the company will “remain free cash flow positive in FY27”. But she also flagged that fiscal 2027 capex “will grow year over year, given demand signals across our portfolio”, with the operating-lease shift bringing the reported figure closer to approximately $175 billion. All of that spend has to be powered, cooled, and networked by somebody, and we pulled together seven suppliers doing exactly that in a free AI infrastructure report.
