Tesla Investor Names His Choice For 'CEO Of The Year' And The Honor Goes To ... (Hint: It Isn't Elon Musk)

Microsoft Corp. MSFT shares hit a record high this week before closing just shy of the level, and much of the buoyancy is due to the OpenAI partnership that propelled the software giant to the forefront of the artificial intelligence race.

Tesla investor and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth And Investment Management Ross Gerber credits much of the company’s success to CEO Satya Nadella.

What Happened: “Nadella is CEO of the year,” Gerber said in a post on X on Sunday. The fund manager added that he sees the executive reaching greater heights and achieving the accolade of the “CEO of the decade” if Nadella “works hard.”

“He has positioned Microsoft perfectly for the next decade,” the fund manager said. He also made mentions of the OpenAI partnership, AI potential and Xbox in the post.

AdvisorShares Gerber Kawasaki ETF GK, the firm’s flagship exchange-traded fund, has Microsoft as its third biggest holding with a 7.73% weighting.

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Why It’s Important: Nadella took over the reins of Microsoft on Feb. 4, 2014 from co-founders Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Under Nadella, Microsoft has increased its revenue from $86.83 billion in fiscal year 2014 that ended on June 30, 2014 to $198.27 billion in fiscal year 2023. GAAP net income swelled from $22.07 billion to $72.74 billion.

Much of the growth is attributed to Nadella’s “cloud-first, mobile-first” strategy that positioned the company at the forefront of emerging technology. Under his leadership, the cloud business has thrived and the company has emerged as a top cloud computing company.

With the rising popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Nadella also quickly acted, deepening Microsoft’s ties with the company. Microsoft made a $10 billion investment in OpenAI early this year.

Microsoft’s stock has performed solidly during Nadella’s reign, outperforming the broader market and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index.

Chart courtesy of Benzinga

Microsoft closed Friday’s session down 0.11% at $377.43, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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