Microsoft Shareholders Vote Against Allocating Bitcoin

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Even as Bitcoin rallies in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president, tech giant Microsoft, which sits second in market capitalization among U.S. stocks, is not currently considering allocating to Bitcoin.

On Tuesday, December 10th, Microsoft shareholders voted down a proposal to allocate to Bitcoin, citing Microsoft’s existing strategy of already evaluating a variety of investable assets, including Bitcoin, as part of its broader investment framework.

The aforementioned proposed program, titled ‘Evaluation of Investing in Bitcoin,’ was submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a conservative think tank in Washington. The think tank argues that Bitcoin is a ‘good, if not the best, hedge against inflation’.

NCPPR’s proposal defines Bitcoin as a corporate responsibility to provide value to shareholders through profit diversification, as noted at the beginning of the video it submitted outlining the content of the proposal:

“Microsoft cannot afford to miss out on the next wave of technology, and Bitcoin is that wave.”

NCPPR argues that the adoption of Bitcoin will create trillions of dollars in value and eliminate shareholder risk, and the video echoes the text of the proposal: the adoption of Bitcoin by institutions and corporations is becoming increasingly common, with Microsoft’s second-largest shareholder, BlackRock, offering Bitcoin spot ETFs to its clients.

NCPPR’s proposal argues that bitcoin is “more volatile” than corporate bonds, and recommends not holding “too much,” but also suggests not risking shareholder value by “ignoring bitcoin altogether. As a result, it suggests using 1 percent to 5 percent of Microsoft’s profits to buy Bitcoin. The proposal formally asks Microsoft to “conduct an evaluation to determine whether diversification of the company’s balance sheet through the inclusion of bitcoin is in the best long-term interest of shareholders.”

Bitcoin fell back below $95,000 in U.S. trading on Tuesday after Microsoft’s shareholders rejected the proposal to hold the currency, which was trading below $94,500 in midday trading in the U.S., according to data from the CoinMarketCap platform, approaching an intraday low that was set early in Tuesday’s Asian trading session, and down more than $3,800, or 4 percent, from an intraday high of just above $982,000 in U.S. morning trading.

Meanwhile, Meme Coin’s intraday losses have widened, CoinMarketCap data show that Dog Coin (DOGE), the seventh largest cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization, has fallen more than 14 percent in the last 24 hours, and dogwifhat (WIF), the 51st largest by market capitalization, has dropped more than 20 percent in the day.

Microsoft shareholders reject proposal to reduce AI risks like disinformation and data privacy breaches

Microsoft shareholders also rejected a proposal on artificial intelligence (AI) risks on Tuesday. The proposal would have required Microsoft to reduce AI risks ranging from disinformation to data privacy breaches and to disclose such risks.

The proposal’s submitter, the conservative nonprofit National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), argued that shareholders “should be concerned about Microsoft’s track record on data ethics,” citing the fact that Open AI, the AI-starred unicorn in which Microsoft is heavily invested, has been accused of stealing from users without notification or permission to steal users’ personal information.

The AI proposal on Tuesday revealed concerns that Microsoft developers may be using data from unethical or illegal sources to train generative AI, such as personal information, copyrighted works or proprietary business information provided by users.

Commentary suggests that this proposal facing Microsoft shareholders reflects the fact that, in the face of rapidly evolving AI technology, investors are demanding that companies consider new transparency and ethics policies for the development and use of AI, including generative AI.