Satya Nadella is CNN Business’ CEO of the Year

Microsoft’s Indian American CEO Satya Nadella has been named CNN Business’ CEO of the Year for leaning into AI like no other big tech company in what was dubbed as the year of artificial intelligence.

In 2023, “Nadella made a multi-billion dollar investment in AI, commercialized and added AI tools like ChatGPT into its suite of products before rivals, and stunned industry onlookers with his ability to handle a crisis quickly, calmly and thoughtfully,” CNN noted.

“Under his leadership, the company is re-emerging as a tech innovator after years of riding the success of Windows. Wall Street has noticed, too: Microsoft’s stock is up 55% this year,” it added.

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“That’s why CNN Business’ staff chose Nadella as the CEO of the Year, beating out other contenders including Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang,” the channel said.

“There’s no question 2023 was the year of AI,” Nadella told CNN in an emailed response. “We’re no longer just talking about innovation in the abstract; we’re seeing real product-making, deployment and productivity gains. At the end of the day, though, this innovation will only be useful if it’s empowering all of us in our careers, in our communities, in our countries.”

“Nadella’s decisions have heavily impacted and influenced the direction of AI, the most significant innovation to come from Silicon Valley in decades,” CNN said explaining its choice.

READ: Satya Nadella wants to help Indians use technology to achieve more (October 21, 2022)

“His ability to steer the aircraft carrier that is Microsoft into this new era has been nothing short of remarkable,” Gil Luria, a senior research analyst at wealth management firm DA Davidson, was cited as saying.

Born in India, Nadella came to the US in the late 1980s to pursue a master’s in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, later receiving an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

“Nadella’s standout performance is a culmination of his work from prior years. He joined the company in 1992 as an engineer, at a time Microsoft was characterized by regulators as a monopoly,” CNN said.

“When he was promoted to CEO nearly 10 years ago, Microsoft had developed a reputation for being slow to adapt to major trends, such as mobile. Fast forward to now and tech companies are lining up to partner with Microsoft and align with its mission to commercialize artificial intelligence for the masses,” CNN noted .

He also worked to soften and revitalize Microsoft’s image, CNN said noting, “As far back as 2016, the company partnered with OpenAI — a then-emerging company with new AI tools — and allowed them to operate the technology on its Azure cloud servers in exchange for access to those tools.”

But after a massive $13 billion investment in OpenAI earlier this year, following the viral launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, Microsoft rolled out AI-powered versions of its flagship products, such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel, breathing new life into otherwise dulled software.

Nadella’s push to commercialize these tools quickly gave it a head start against competitors such as Google and Amazon, who were working on similar technologies, and helped ignite an arms race across the industry.

Now as more companies, from Instacart to Snapchat, add ChatGPT and other OpenAI technologies to their own services, Microsoft’s cloud business is poised for deeper growth. Microsoft has reported strong Azure growth over the last three quarters, CNN noted.

Nadella told CNN he indeed remains “focused” on empowering both people and organizations to achieve more, as it continues to make and deploy new products.

“That’s our mission at Microsoft … and what we continue to focus on as we look to 2024 and beyond,” he said. “Just imagine if 8 billion people had access to a personalized tutor, a doctor that provided them medical guidance, a mentor that gave advice for anything they needed. I believe all that’s within reach. It’s about making the impossible possible.”

“The biggest challenge, however, is if Nadella can take Microsoft to the next level by making these AI-powered products profitable,” CNN said.