For his leadership role in the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence (A.I.), Microsoft’s (MSFT) Satya Nadella has been named “CEO of the Year” by CNN Business.
In 2023, Nadella invested $13 billion U.S. in privately held A.I. start-up OpenAI, added A.I. tools such as ChatGPT to its Bing search engine and other products, and successfully managed multiple crises, including a board battle that erupted at OpenAI last fall.
Microsoft also completed the acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard and grew its cloud computing unit throughout 2023, repositioning Microsoft as a leading tech innovator.
In being named CEO of the Year, Nadella beat out other contenders for the honour, such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang.
Since 2018, CNN Business writers and editors have met at the end of each year to select one person whose executive performance stood out over the previous 12 months.
The broadcaster noted that Nadella’s decisions greatly impacted and influenced the direction of A.I., which has emerged as the most significant innovation from Silicon Valley in decades.
Born in India, Nadella came to the U.S. in the late 1980s to pursue a master’s degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He later received an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992 as an engineer. When he was named CEO nearly 10 years ago, Microsoft had developed a reputation for being slow to adapt to new trends.
Now, the company is highly diversified and has moved away from its reliance on sales of its Windows operating system.
Today, Microsoft is leading the commercialization and monetization of A.I. technologies. The company is rolling out A.I.-powered versions of its flagship products, such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, breathing new life into its software products.
The stock of Microsoft has gained 62% over the last 12 months and currently trades at $370.60 U.S. per share.
