Amy Hood

Microsoft has been on a roll, thanks in part to Amy Hood. Now in her 10th year as CFO, Hood worked to extend the company’s partnership with OpenAI, building on Microsoft’s multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment in that startup’s generative AI technologies. As a result of Microsoft’s investment, it introduced the new AI-powered versions of its Bing search engine and Edge browsers, as well as an AI helper tool—Copilot—in Windows, Microsoft 365, and other office productivity products. Hood has also played a role in pushing through the pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which could boost Microsoft’s strengths in the gaming and metaverse spaces. In the year through September 2023, Microsoft added more than $500 billion to its market cap, which stood at $2.35 trillion at the end of that month.