As the year comes to an end, Microsoft plans to hold its annual shareholder meeting on December 10th. On this year’s list of “voting items” for shareholders is a proposal to diversify Microsoft’s assets and increase shareholder value by investing in Bitcoin, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing published on Thursday. The company’s board of directors is urging shareholders to vote against it.
The proposal titled “Assessment of Investing in Bitcoin” posits that Microsoft’s current investment in corporate bonds barely outpaces inflation rates and suggests that the company should consider diversifying their assets with Bitcoin, an “excellent, if not the best, hedge against inflation.”
“Therefore, in inflationary times like these, corporations should—and perhaps have a fiduciary duty to—to diversify their balance sheets with assets that appreciate more than bonds, even if those assets are more volatile in the short-term,” the proposal said.
Beneath the proposal is a section labeled “Board Recommendation” in which Microsoft’s board of directors advises shareholders to vote against the proposal. The board explains that the company does not need to assess investing in Bitcoin because “Microsoft’s management already carefully considers this topic,” the filing said.
The tech giant, whose largest shareholders are Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street, says it has a Global Treasury and Investment Services team that regularly evaluates a vast array of potential investments to effectively diversify Microsoft’s assets and protect shareholders from inflation. This team has considered Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in past evaluations, Microsoft said in the filing.
“Microsoft has strong and appropriate processes in place to manage and diversify its corporate treasury for long-term benefit of shareholders and this requested public assessment is unwarranted,” the filing said.
The proposal was set forth by The National Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank. The organization serves as an advisory board member of Project 2025, a far-right policy initiative to expand presidential power and impose a traditionalist social order under the next Republican administration.
The proposal notes that while the company should consider investing in Bitcoin, it should not risk shareholder value by investing too much of their assets in the cryptocurrency. The organization suggests that Microsoft “evaluate the benefits of holding some, even just 1% of its assets in Bitcoin.”
This proposal comes as MicroStrategy, another large tech company, reaches a new high of $241 this year as the company’s strategic pivot toward Bitcoin investment pays off handsomely. The company has amassed 252,220 Bitcoins since 2020, worth about $17 billion.
This has led MicroStrategy’s stock to surge 250% over the past year while Microsoft is up 16%.