{
  "id": 3218839,
  "title": "This Company Just Paid Out $6.8 Billion. Its AI Bill Was 4x That",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/23/this-company-just-paid-out-6-8-billion-its-ai-bill-was-4x-that",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-23T20:38:55.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Finance",
    "slug": "yahoo-finance",
    "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/company-just-paid-6-8-203855489.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On August 20, 2026, Microsoft (MSFT) paid out a $6.8 billion dividend, the largest single-day payout among 26 companies going ex-dividend that day. Applied Materials (AMAT) led the other companies with a $421 million distribution, accounting for less than 7% of Microsoft's single-day payout. Microsoft's AI capex (capital expenditure) for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, reached $115.948 billion, a significant increase from $64.551 billion the previous year. Despite this substantial investment, Microsoft still managed to return over $43 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the fiscal year, committing to staying free cash flow positive in FY2027. Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing division, generated $100 billion in annual revenue, while Copilot had reached 30 million paid seats. The company's commercial RPO (revenue per operating unit) grew to $678 billion, an 84% increase. Despite the hefty investment in AI infrastructure, Microsoft continues to lead in terms of dividend payouts, with its latest check totaling $6,757,245,950.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}