Satya Nadella

Satya Nadella has led Microsoft as CEO since 2014, but his connection with the company dates back much further. He joined in 1993 as a marketing manager, enthusiastically promoting Microsoft Excel—sporting vintage ’70s-style glasses and a full head of hair. Decades later, Nadella is now driving Microsoft's efforts toward the advancement of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Under his leadership, Microsoft took a transformative step in 2019 by investing $1 billion in OpenAI, a partnership that has since evolved into a multi-billion-dollar profit-sharing agreement. This collaboration harnessed Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure to accelerate OpenAI’s ambitious AGI research. In 2023, when OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman was unexpectedly removed from his position, Nadella swiftly intervened by offering positions to OpenAI’s entire team, reinforcing stability and continuity.

Nadella’s vision extends beyond strategic partnerships. In recent years, he has expanded Microsoft’s AI initiatives by investing in the French AI lab Mistral and recruiting top-tier researchers to develop Microsoft’s proprietary large language models. His approach reflects a clear objective: to strengthen Microsoft’s independence in AI development and position the company at the forefront of the AI revolution.