December 18, 2024 – Despite the widespread popularity of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which boasts the largest user base globally, CEO Satya Nadella revealed in a surprising statement on the latest episode of Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley’s BG2Pod podcast that Google actually earns more money from Windows than Microsoft itself.
“Google makes more money on Windows than the entirety of Microsoft. Truly, it’s unbelievable,” Nadella said, adding that this should be seen as good news for Microsoft shareholders. He acknowledged that the company had lost significant ground in the search engine battle, despite having a distribution advantage on Windows, and expressed his belief that they could now compete to win back some of that share.
Nadella also touched on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI), noting that Windows, as an open system, allows for competition in this field as well. While Microsoft has its own AI tool, Copilot, competitors such as Gemini, ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude also have the opportunity to be discovered and adopted by Windows users.
In a previous attempt to secure a deal with Apple to make Bing the default search engine on its devices, Nadella described the potential agreement as a “game-changing opportunity” for Microsoft, stating that they were willing to pay Apple up to $15 billion per year. However, recent antitrust cases involving Google have seemingly dashed Microsoft’s hopes, with Apple reportedly stating that they did not believe Microsoft could afford such a high price and that they had offered Bing for free.
Despite these challenges, Nadella remains optimistic about the future of search, particularly in light of the rapid emergence of generative AI. He expressed his excitement about Apple’s agreement with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into its technology stack, noting that he had been trying to secure a similar deal with Apple for almost 10 years.
“I’ve been trying to get a search deal with Apple for like 10 years, so when Tim finally did a deal with Sam, I was the most excited person,” Nadella said. “It’s better that ChatGPT got the deal than somebody else, because we have both a commercial and an investment relationship with OpenAI.”
