Michael Saylor Steps Down as MicroStrategy CEO — What's His Net Worth?

Throughout the dot-com bubble in the late '90s and early 2000s, Michael Saylor persevered with his software company MicroStrategy, and now he'll have to persevere through a potential Bitcoin bubble. With the recent news of him stepping down as the company's CEO, what is Saylor's net worth?

MicroStrategy is known for its business intelligence software, along with cloud-based services. So, it came as a surprise to many that the company would expand its business operations into holding Bitcoin assets. The Bitcoin investments led by Saylor served the software firm well. The company's valuation increased substantially in 2021 and early 2022. But now, with the current crypto crash, the company has nearly lost $1 billion in digital assets.

Saylor is the chairman of the board, and co-founder of MicroStrategy, which is an enterprise analytics and mobility software company.

According to his MicroStrategy bio, Saylor attended MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on a full Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship. He studied aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and graduated with the “highest honors” in 1987. After a stint in the Air Force, Saylor started a consulting career and worked with DuPont, Dow, Exxon, and other companies.

In 1989, when Saylor was just 24, he co-cofounded MicroStrategy. “Mr. Saylor combined his passions for technology, business, and the use of computer simulations to launch MicroStrategy,” his bio reads. “The company was founded on his vision of helping enterprises deliver intelligence everywhere.”

According to Forbes, Saylor's estimated net worth is $1.1 billion. In addition to his MicroStrategy work, Saylor has 40 patents to his name. He also founded the home security company Alarm.com and the interactive voice response service provider Angel.com.

Saylor has other claims to fame too. In 1999, he founded The Saylor Foundation, whose Saylor Academy has provided free educational services to more than 800,000 students, according to his site Michael.com.

In 2012, Saylor published the book The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything, which a Fortune review deemed as “a thoughtful romp across invention and innovation—and blessedly free of MicroStrategy sales pitches.”

On Aug. 2, the company announced that Saylor is stepping down as CEO, and current President Phong Le will take over as CEO. Saylor will transition to a new role as an executive chairman focused on Bitcoin strategy. As of June 30, 2022, the software firm reportedly has a total of 129,699 Bitcoin tokens, which equals about $1.988 billion. The company lost $917 on its Bitcoin investments.

The MicroStrategy honcho — who had $5 billion of Bitcoin through the company — told TIME that Bitcoin is a “textbook example of a rational action in response to monetary inflation” and not an example of irrational exuberance.

“If you’re going to make a rational investment decision today, whether you’re a real estate investor, a stock investor, a bond investor, or just a wage earner, or you’re a treasurer, you have to estimate the rate of monetary expansion for the next eight years,” Saylor told the magazine. “We know there’s a commitment to run deficits, and we know this commitment to stimulus.”

He also said, “So now the issue is, What’s a rational behavior? I’ve got to find a store of value. Bitcoin is a unique new technology, it’s like the Facebook of money or the Google of money. And it grew from nothing to a trillion dollars in monetary value in 12 years.” After having $5 billion worth of BTC, that value has now dropped to approximately $2.9 billion.