An Interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella About Finding Core Competencies

Listen to Podcast Good morning, This week’s Stratechery Interview is with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. I have previously interviewed Nadella in May 2024, October 2022, April 2020, and May 2019. As I noted yesterday, I spoke to Nadella shortly after the conclusion of his keynote at Build, Microsoft’s annual developer conference. One notable thing about the keynote was the fact that Nadella was — outside of product demos — the sole presenter; one gets the sense he has shifted into a much more hands-on role at Microsoft over the last year. The reasons why are clear: my first question to Nadella was if he was happy about where Microsoft was currently positioned as a company. We talk about the reasons for that question, the status of the company’s partnership with OpenAI, and whether Microsoft has invested sufficiently in AI infrastructure. Then we talk about the future of software, Microsoft’s business model in the age of AI, and if they can operate independently from the leading edge models. At the end we talk about Project Solara and whether Microsoft will ever pay residents to build data centers. One note, with regards to a misunderstanding towards the end of the interview: there is no documentation I could find about being able to use Copilot Cowork with non-Anthropic models; Microsoft’s own documentation fits my understanding. As a reminder, all Stratechery content, including interviews, is available as a podcast; click the link at the top of this email to add Stratechery to your podcast player. On to the Interview: An Interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella About Finding Core Competencies This interview is lightly edited for clarity. Topics: Evaluating Microsoft’s Competitive Position | MAI Models | OpenAI and Capex | The Software Business | GitHub Copilot | Windows vs. Project Solara | Datacenters Evaluating Microsoft’s Competitive Position Satya Nadella, welcome back to Stratechery. SN: It’s great to be with you, Ben. So first off, I don’t know if you realize this, but at least according to my daughter, the defining word for the real grinders in Gen Z — first off, LinkedIn is like the social network. Number two, the word they all use is “build”, “I’m building, I’m building”, so who knew when I was at the first Build, I think, in 2010? Who knew you were such a trendsetter? SN: (laughing) There you go, I’m thrilled that your daughter is building and is on LinkedIn.