“A Revolution That Will Completely Upend the AI Scene” – Exclusive Interview with Satya Nadella, MS CEO – Korea JoongAng Ilbo

This post is an English translation of the Korea JoongAng Ilbo’s interview with Satya Nadella, MS CEO.

Factpl Interview

The Refounder Who Grew MS to $3 Trillion,

Exclusive Interview with Satya Nadella, MS CEO

“What was the very first thing Bill Gates made?” I suddenly wondered. So last weekend, I fired up GitHub Copilot (an AI coding tool) and created the software he developed. It only took an hour. Back then, Bill Gates might have pulled several all-nighters, but now anyone can use AI tools to build similar software.

On the 19th (local time) at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Seattle, Washington, Satya Nadella, MS CEO and Chairman of the Board, sat with over 20 global media reporters and discussed Microsoft’s AI innovations. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Microsoft held an “Innovation Campus Tour” event from the 18th to the 20th (local time) for global media including the UK’s BBC and Japan’s Nikkei, with only JoongAng Ilbo’s Factpl invited among domestic media.

Satya Nadella, who became Microsoft’s third leader in 2014, is known as Microsoft’s “refounder.” While founder Bill Gates made Microsoft the big tech that ushered in the PC era with Windows and Office, Nadella is the driving force behind Microsoft’s continued growth as an active big tech company with a promising future in the AI era, 50 years later. Under his leadership, Microsoft restructured its operations around cloud services, acquired LinkedIn and GitHub, and invested in OpenAI. The company’s valuation, which was $300 billion in 2014, is now approaching $3 trillion.

“By 2025, 95% of corporate work will be conducted in the cloud. Seventy percent of future apps will be built using no-code (tools that require no coding) and low-code (tools that minimize coding) platforms.”

These were the words Nadella spoke during his visit to Korea in 2022. Three years later, his prediction is coming true. Factpl met with Nadella, who came to Korea for an “AI Tour,” on the 26th for an exclusive interview, directly asking about the future of AI, Microsoft’s strategy, and his views on DeepSeek. The piece is a comprehensive reconstruction of the exclusive interview conducted on the 26th at the aT Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul, as well as the discussions held at Microsoft’s U.S. headquarters.

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