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Despite publicly distancing himself from the company he founded, Bill Gates has quietly remained active behind the scenes of Microsoft’s artificial intelligence strategy and company operations.
Business Insider, citing interviews with current and former Microsoft executives, reported in late April that in addition to advising CEO Satya Nadella and the company on its AI strategy, Gates has also reviewed the company’s products, recruited high-level executives, and stayed involved in Microsoft’s multi-year, multi-billion dollar partnership with OpenAI.
“Satya and the entire senior leadership team lean on Gates very significantly,” one executive told Business Insider. “His opinion is sought every time we make a major change.”
Read more about how Gates is remaining a quiet Microsoft power broker.
Nvidia’s CEO doesn’t mind being called a perfectionist
As head of one of the world’s most valuable companies, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang doesn’t believe getting there should be easy — including for people working under him.
During a recent interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Huang was told what some of his colleagues at the chipmaking company have said about him: “Demanding. Perfectionist. Not easy to work for.”
Huang replied that the words “perfectly” described him. “It should be like that,” he said. “If you want to do extraordinary things, it shouldn’t be easy.”
Read what else Huang had to say about leading Nvidia and what he thinks about the role of human workers in the era of AI.
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Send questions, comments, and Bill Gates quotes to talk@qz.com. This edition of The Memo was written by Britney Nguyen and Morgan Haefner.