Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, has positioned himself as a high-risk gambler in artificial intelligence (AI). One notable example was his investment in Inflection AI which was founded by Mustafa Suleyman – the co-founder of Deep Mind. But even with Suleyman’s controversial character and Inflection AI being unprofitable. Microsoft spent over $650 million on licensing their technology, absorbed a majority of its workforce and appointed Suleyman to head an important business unit.
Investing in Inflection AI
This is not Nadella’s first bombardment into AI. Within the last five years alone, he invested $13 billion into OpenAI. A company that lacks profitability but is famous for deploying innovative approaches towards AI. By incorporating AI into all its products, however, the strategy seems risky since this technology is still imperfect. This move has however paid off as Microsoft’s market value increased by 70% to over $3.3 trillion.
Nadella took over from Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft almost 10 years ago and has been hailed for bringing it back to life after a period of decline. His bold purchases including buying Activision Blizzard for $69 billion and acquiring GitHub for $7.5 billion show his audacity in taking chances at things.
Nadella’s Leadership and Strategic Acquisitions
The metaverse was a short distraction before AI became Nadella’s main priority at Microsoft. He approved GitHub Copilot which is an AI port for developers and it was successful which helped him to stand firm for AI. Nevertheless, there was a conflict at OpenAI that threatened to dismantle his strategies; the board fired his close friend, Sam Altman, from his position at the company. Microsoft’s Nadella tried to avoid a confrontation and offered Altman and OpenAI employees jobs at Microsoft.
The next step taken by Nadella was to get towards Inflection AI. Although some people had certain doubts regarding how Suleyman managed the company, Nadella saw a great leader in him. After daily consultations, he agreed to merge Inflection with Microsoft and incorporate both their technology and workers without going for a structured acquisition to evade anti-trust laws.
Nadella’s strategy can be strongly associated with his view that AI is an enabler or, in other words, it is a technology that brings significant changes. He prescribes risky ventures to guarantee the firm’s market leadership in the AI business.
