It’s going to be a long four years for Microsoft as the company tries to navigate the stormy chaos and pledges of retribution that follow wherever President Donald J. Trump’s mind wanders. Though he’s been president for only a little more than a week, Trump has already unleashed a tsunami of actions that could affect the company: declaring war on diversity (DEI) efforts, removing the guardrails former President Biden placed around AI, and demanding undying fealty as far as his eyes can see.
CEO Satya Nadella has clearly been planning how the company can make it through the years as unscathed as possible. Let’s look at how he’s handled Trump so far — and what he might do over the next four years.
Avoiding AI wars
Microsoft is the world’s largest and most valuable AI company, and one of Trump’s primary goals for AI is to unleash its power, for better or worse. So, his actions will have outsized effects on Microsoft.
Trump wasted no time getting to the “worse” part — on his first day in office, he rescinded former President Biden’s executive order putting guardrails around AI, including safety and security measures, as well as issues related to bias, civil rights, and how generative AI (genAI) is produced.
Microsoft and many other AI companies welcomed Biden’s order when it was issued in 2023, because it was good for tech companies, not just for people affected by AI. With guardrails in place, Microsoft and other companies believed more people would use AI, which would mean bigger profits for them.
After killing Biden’s order, Trump signed his own, asking that an AI action plan be developed by the feds in the next 180 days. The order is as much an attack on Biden as it is anything else — its first bullet point called Biden’s move a “Dangerous Executive Order that hinders AI innovation and imposes onerous and unnecessary government control over the development of AI.”
We don’t know what the Trump Administration plan will be. But it’s clear it won’t target the dangers of AI. Microsoft, as well as other AI companies, have remained silent about the action. It was a smart move for Nadella to hold his tongue — Microsoft can always impose its own guardrails on AI, despite Trump’s order.
Nadella has also stayed on the sidelines in the controversy around Trump’s Stargate project, a joint initiative by OpenAI, Oracle, Softbank, and the US government to raise $100 billion to build AI data centers and power plants, and then up the ante all the way to $500 billion. Top Trump tech advisor Elon Musk claimed OpenAI, Oracle, Softbank “don’t actually have the money” for the project, called OpenAI CEO Sam Altman a “swindler,” and said the entire initiative was “fake.”
Altman fired back, telling Musk he was “wrong, as you surely know” and taking another shot at Musk, writing, “just one more mean tweet and then maybe you’ll love yourself.”
Nadella sidestepped the fight when asked about it in an interview on CNBC, saying that Microsoft was spending $80 billion on Azure so “customers can count on Microsoft with OpenAI models being there everywhere in the world, serving OpenAI models and other models. I am good for my $80 billion,” he added.
Again, this is a smart move. No matter what happens with Stargate, Microsoft wins. It’s a big OpenAI investor, so if Stargate succeeds, it pays off for Microsoft. And if it doesn’t, Microsoft can sell more AI-related infrastructure. Joining the tit-for-tat wouldn’t have helped Microsoft.
Staying the course on DEI
Trump was elected in part because of his attacks on DEI efforts — and since he’s become president, he’s gone on an anti-DEI rampage. Not only has he shut down the federal government’s DEI programs, he’s also threatened to investigate companies that continue to pursue DEI goals.
Many tech titans joined Trump’s crusade, notably Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who killed Meta’s DEI efforts, and Jeff Bezos, who scaled back Amazon’s. Google has downsized its DEI program as well.
Microsoft hasn’t followed suit. Nadella in October said in Microsoft’s annual report on DEI that the efforts “ensure our work force represents the planet we serve, and that the products we build always meet our customers’ needs.”
In December, more than a month after Trump’s election, Microsoft Chief Diversity Officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyr doubled down on that in a post on LinkedIn, noting that not only are DEI efforts the right thing to do, but they’re essential to Microsoft’s success. She wrote on LinkedIn, “I’m thinking about the importance of continuing our diversity and inclusion work, expanding empathy, and anticipating the needs of all our stakeholders, both within Microsoft and beyond. The business case for D&I is not only a constant, but is stronger than ever, reinforcing our belief that a diverse and inclusive workforce is crucial for innovation and success.”
Once again, Nadella handled this in a low-key way, promising the company will stay true to its values, but not going out of his way to take on a fight with Trump about it.
Not singing in Trump’s amen chorus
Beyond individual issues like AI and DEI is the larger issue of pledging fealty to Trump and all he stands for. Trump has made tech one of the cornerstones of his plans for the future and is using his relationships with tech moguls as a way to provide cover for the ways in which he wants to reshape the country and its politics.
Many of the world’s most powerful tech titans are only too happy to sing along in Trump’s amen chorus. To show their support, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Musk were all seated in prominent positions at Trump’s inauguration. (Note that Apple CEO Tim Cook attended as well, but Apple still fully supports DEI efforts.)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote: “Big Tech billionaires have a front row seat at Trump’s inauguration. They have even better seats than Trump’s own cabinet picks. That says it all.”
Noticeably absent was Nadella. His non-attendance made clear he’s not in on Trump’s agenda.
The upshot
What we’ve seen in the earliest days of the Trump administration from Nadella is likely how he’ll try to safely navigate Microsoft through the coming years. He’ll stay out of the public eye as much as possible, won’t comment on political and cultural issues, and when it comes to tech won’t engage in the kind of chest-banging that Musk, Zuckerberg, Altman, and other tech titans have engaged in.
All that is easy to say and tough to do. But if Nadella can do it, Microsoft will be a stronger company four years from now, with its culture intact.
