Satya Nadella

Satya Nadella has successfully led Microsoft through not one but two major transformations in his decade at the helm of the world’s largest software company—first from PCs to the cloud, and now to AI. His prescient early bet on OpenAI has helped put Microsoft at the pinnacle of Big Tech’s upper echelon, with a market capitalization—at $3.1 trillion—to match. Under his leadership, Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service steadily gained market share from Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s 365 suite of business productivity software remains ubiquitous across industries. Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot meanwhile has become a must-have tool for every software developer. And Nadella is not sitting still, continuing to invest in Microsoft’s internal AI capabilities as well as placing savvy bets on up-and-coming startups in fields from driverless cars to quantum computing. Considered one of the sharpest strategic minds in management today as well as a charismatic and empathetic leader, he has the ear of Fortune 500 CEOs, startup founders, investors, and presidents and prime ministers.