Microsoft’s CEO Tells WSJ: “We Can’t Let AI Giants Eat the Economy”

Yes, you have read this correctly.

He told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ): “We now have to do the hard work in earning the social permission.” Well, sir. I’m afraid it is somewhat too late for that now.

In fact, he was raging that his counterparts in the AI labs and the wider tech companies are pushing the AI Kool-Aid and are far too PR-driven, bragging about how superpowerful their AI models are, with wacky claims that not only dragged us all into a catastrophic financial bubble but also backfired spectacularly.

He told the WSJ: “You can’t say, hey, all white-collar jobs are gone, and this could even be a weapon, and we will use all the power to build data centres.”

I find this quite interesting and extraordinary because back in November 2024, leaked documents showed that OpenAI and Microsoft agreed to define AGI as a system “that can generate $100 billion in profits,” even though OpenAI’s website at the time stated that AGI refers to “AI systems that are smarter than humans.”

In other words, they knew it was all bullshit.

Another fun fact, Microsoft’s own AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, very recently claimed that AI was on the verge of performing most “professional tasks.” Not to mention, he was one of the earliest advocates for “AI companions” before joining Microsoft following the acquisition of his AI lab, Inflection AI.

Following his appointment as the CEO of Microsoft AI, Suleyman shared his vision for Microsoft’s Copilot as being not just a tool but “an AI companion for everyone” in his open letter published on Microsoft’s official blog.

I wonder if Nadella listened to my discussions on The CEO Retort podcast, where I repeatedly highlighted since 2022 that trust will be the only element that will make or break the entire AI industry. I reminded my listeners of this very point on a recent episode discussing how the relentless pursuit of profit, misinformation, and misguided fantasies has fueled an AI trust crisis that is threatening the entire industry.

Sulleyman and I were part of the same cohort at Google Campus London’s ecosystem in the early 2010s, which brought together top talent from across the UK to establish London as the AI hub superpower it was before Brexit. In other words, if I have the knowledge that allowed me to accurately predict and call out the AI nonsense years before the bubble ever emerged, he has at least the same level of knowledge and expertise as I do. I actually expect him to know considerably more, given the resources available to him at Microsoft.

Certainly, what we have witnessed so far since early 2023 is that the AI CEOs, venture capitalists (VCs), and the broligarchs have been gleefully pushing sci-fi claims with a hint of AI dystopian fantasies as the pitch to get all the attention from the right people: The ones with zero understanding of AI with the authority to issue lucrative funds toward these AI labs, for corporate CEOS to government leaders.

Above all, the general public does not care about any given model’s features, context window, or whatever compute infrastructure is powering it. This is all geek talk for people like me. Speaking of the public, a May 2026 research by King’s College London’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Policy found that fear of AI’s impact on jobs and society is widespread and cuts across every group in the UK.

Interestingly, the same research also found that there is somewhat less concern about the impact on people’s own jobs, and some groups are more excited about the positive impacts, particularly employers, men generally and male undergraduate students in particular. Dare I say it, the demographics of SpaceX investors who should be seriously concerned about their decision, at the time of this writing.

But one thing is 100% certain. From my company’s direct interaction with the general public, as well as the wider business community, they simply care about whether an AI model works, whether it is private, secure and is good value for money.

Unfortunately, what we are witnessing is the exact opposite of all the above. No wonder Apple saw the writing on the wall back in 2024 and reaffirmed its AI approach at WWDC 2026, which appears to be moving in the opposite direction to Microsoft’s. Perhaps Nadella had also seen the writing on the wall back then.

In fact, as I reported in 2025, we will witness public resentment and a significant reckoning that will impact the AI industry in 2026, potentially leading to catastrophic financial consequences. We have already seen a glimpse of this rising trend, and I’m willing to bet my watches that Satya Nadella sees it too. Hence, he might be thinking that it’s time to abandon ship.

Perhaps it is part of Microsoft’s apparent wider cleanup operation following a joint investigation by The Guardian, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, and the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, which exposed that the Israeli military’s elite spy agency, Unit 8200, had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform in Europe to store a vast trove of intercepted calls from Gaza and the West Bank.

In response, Microsoft ordered an investigation, which apparently led to the company’s suspension of Microsoft Israel’s general manager, Alon Haimovich, in May 2026. As reported by the Israeli business newspaper, Globes, in addition to Haimovich’s departure, several other managers had also left their positions following this major controversy at the subsidiary relating to violations of Microsoft’s code of ethics.

While I’m sure many ethicists are celebrating Nadella’s apparent change of heart. But we must not allow anyone to rewrite history. Yes, I welcome this change of tone. Unless we see more coherent action against the misleading AI claims that still dominate the tech industry, this interview with the WSJ will be forgotten by tomorrow and become irrelevant in a world dominated by powerful and well-funded grifters.