In the depths of the global pandemic, Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, remained upbeat, even as arch-rival Apple took the crown as the world’s most valuable company. He mobilized the company to help corporate customers “adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything,” enthusing that “we’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.”
At the same time as focusing on the here-and-now, Nadella kept one eye on the future, quietly increasing Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, which was a little-known artificial intelligence company at the time. This strategic investment was all about pursuing a vision of hope. As he said when first committing to OpenAI: “Whether it’s our pursuit of quantum computing or it’s a pursuit of artificial general intelligence, I think you need these high-ambition North Stars.”
