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Microsoft at 50: An AI Giant. A Kinder Culture. And Still Hellbent on Domination

When Satya Nadella took over as CEO, the company was lumbering and uncool. He cleaned up a toxic culture, crafted the deal of the decade, and put Microsoft back on top.

Early in his tenure, Nadella and Scott Guthrie agreed that owning it would give Microsoft a huge advantage in winning the hearts and minds of developers, but the time wasn’t right. While its new CEO was rejuvenating the company’s business plan and boosting its geek credibility, Smith and his team have had plenty to deflect: antitrust investigations, challenges to Microsoft’s acquisitions, and, as in this case, egregious security failures that had allowed the Chinese free access to America’s secrets. Instead of the reliable, familiar PC apps of old, which people installed on their hard drives, Windows users now have to deal with pricey, often less powerful, cloud-based subscription versions, and they have to sign in with a Microsoft account.

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