Satya Nadella just passed the decade mark as Microsoft's CEO, leading it past Apple to become the world's most valuable company.

Why it matters: He's sidestepped most of the controversies that have dogged his Big Tech peers, while leaning hard into tech megatrends like cloud, gaming, and AI.

Zoom in: One hallmark of his tenure has been dealmaking, including a key investment in OpenAI and multi-billion dollar acquisitions of Minecraft creator Mojang (2014), LinkedIn (2016), GitHub (2018), Zenimax (2020), and Activision Blizzard (2023).

Flashback: "His vision for how technology will be used and experienced around the world is exactly what Microsoft needs as the company enters its next chapter of expanded product innovation and growth," Microsoft founder Bill Gates said back in February 2014, when Nadella was made CEO.

• Nadella first started at Microsoft in 1992, per that announcement, and "spearheaded major strategy and technical shifts" in the years that followed.
• Those included "the company's move to the cloud and the development of one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world supporting Bing, Xbox, Office and other services."

Go deeper: How Microsoft's AI lead is showing up