Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s son, Zain, died at age 26 on Monday following a lifelong battle with cerebral palsy, according to reports. The tech firm informed its top executives of Zain Nadella’s passing in an email. The message asked the executives to send their thoughts and prayers to the Nadella family. “I know we all want to support Satya during this difficult time,” Microsoft’s chief people officer Kathleen Hogan said in the message, according to Geekwire. “The best way right now is to hold him and his family in your thoughts and prayers, while allowing them the privacy and peace to process such a grave loss.” Nadella’s son – the eldest of his three children – experienced asphyxiation in utero and was born weighing just three pounds. Zain Nadella received care at Seattle Children’s Hospital for much of his life. The Microsoft CEO and his wife, Anu, donated $15 million to the Seattle Children’s Hospital and helped establish the Zain Nadella Endowed Chair in Pediatric Neurosciences in 2021. “Zain will be remembered for his eclectic taste in music, his bright sunny smile and the immense joy he brought to his family and all those who loved him,” Children’s Hospital CEO Jeff Sperring said in a statement shared with Microsoft’s executive team. Microsoft did not immediately return a request for further comment. Satya Nadella has yet to publicly comment on his son’s passing. In his 2017 memoir “Hit Refresh,” Satya Nadella recalled that he was “devastated” upon learning the details of his son’s birth and medical issues. “But mostly I was sad for how things turned out for me and Anu,” Nadella wrote. “Thankfully, Anu helped me to understand that it was not about what happened to me. It was about deeply understanding what had happened to Zain, and developing empathy for his pain and his circumstances while accepting our responsibility as his parents.”
