When Satya Nadella took the stage at Microsoft Inspire, his partnership focus đĄ became apparent. In the first 2 min he emphasized "ecosystem", "partner" and "platform" 11 times. In his compelling vision, AI unlocks a $2.5 Tr opportunity for Microsoft's partner ecosystem.
đ This speaks volumes about Nadella, a leader who became a true partnership mastermind of the current technology generation.
Take the OpenAI collaboration that is now among the all-time top 3 tech partnerships.
The other two? Arguably Microsoft's early '80s partnership with IBM that put Microsoft on the map and shaped the future of personal computing.
Another is Googleâs Android acquisition and its partnership with all smartphone OEMs. As a result Android OS today is running on 3.6 billion devices.
But back to the Inspire, which was indeed as much about AI as it was about Microsoftâs 400K partners that employ an incredible 11 million people.
Three partnership-focused insights from Nadella's keynote stand out
[see video clip from the keynote]
đŻ How well he frames incremental $2.5Tr partner opportunity with AI
Nadella foresees AI influencing 7-10% of the $100 Trillion Global GDP.
Current Microsoft and partner opportunities are $4Tr. He believes that Microsoft and partner ecosystem will grow 50%+, capturing $2-2.5 Tr (annually my guess).
This implies 25-30% of AI upside will be captured by Microsoft and its partner ecosystem. Bold vision, isnât it?
đ¤ Behind Every Platform Shift, A Landmark Partnership
"Each platform shift has an iconic, industry-shaping partnership," Nadella asserts.
Microsoft's early support of OpenAI and it's $11Bn investments is a testament to this belief. It's also a driving force that started the current AI innovation wave.
đ˝ The Open-Source Embrace
Nadellaâs Microsoft isnât afraid to welcome competing products onto their platform or place Microsoft's products on competing platforms.
This was evident again from their partnership announcement with Meta, which introduces their new Meta's Llama 2 model coming to both Azure and Windows.
âso that application developers now can take advantage of both the frontier models of OpenAI as well as the models that are available in open source to be able to transform every software category there is.â
It's clear: Nadella's leadership reflects a paradigm shift in the tech industry's approach to partnerships.
The market likes it:: Microsoft shares roseđş~5% on the announcements.
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