Satya Nadella watched World Cup final amid OpenAI drama, updated colleagues on Kohli’s performance

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is an ardent fan of cricket.

A piece in The New Yorker has offered glimpses of the chaos that unfolded at Microsoft in the aftermath of Sam Altman’s ouster. The CEO of OpenAI, the startup in which Microsoft has invested $13 billion, was pushed out by the board on November 17 in a surprise announcement that sent shockwaves through the tech industry.

Microsoft’s senior leadership was reportedly kept in the dark about Altman’s forced exit until the last minute – according to The New Yorker, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was informed just 20 minutes before the board of OpenAI went public with the announcement. But even as Nadella and co scrambled to deal with the unfolding crisis, the CEO of Microsoft made time to watch the ICC Cricket World Cup final between his home country of India and Australia.

According to the report, Microsoft’s senior executive discussed three plans to deal with the ouster of Sam Altman – with Plan A being working with interim CEO Mira Murati to “stabilize the situation.”

Next time you think your job is more important than cricket, remember that this man had $12 billion on the line and the potential for a very public egg-on-his-face, but that didn’t stop him from updating an uncomprehending audience about Kohli’s batting https://t.co/dSZP9Wn9Dk pic.twitter.com/EPspe36BwU

— Sriram (@sriramin140) December 2, 2023

In the midst of these high-stakes conversation, cricket fan Satya Nadella made time for the India vs Australia on November 18 - he broke the tension by updating his colleagues about the match. “Nadella began conferring with Murati to see if there was a way to reinstate Altman as C.E.O. Amid these conversations, the Cricket World Cup was occurring, and Nadella—a fan of India’s team, which was in the finals against Australia’s—occasionally broke the tension with updates on Virat Kohli’s performance at the wickets,” The New Yorker reported.

Nadella, in fact, followed the entire World Cup closely. Days before the OpenAI shocker, he reportedly stayed up all night to watch the nail-biting World Cup semi-final which saw India’s thumping 70-run win over New Zealand.