Satya Nadella reveals he built a cricket analysis AI app over Thanksgiving break

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has revealed an unusual holiday ritual: he spends his time off building AI tools for cricket. Speaking at a company event in Bengaluru, Nadella said he used the Thanksgiving break to code a Deep Research AI app that could analyse the sport he grew up loving.

The Microsoft chief explained that his experimental tool could break down cricketing arguments, identify areas of agreement and disagreement, and generate reasoning chains. As a test, he asked it to assemble an all-time Indian Test XI, a challenge that immediately won the audience’s attention. With a laugh, Nadella joked that the results were so impressive he “felt like applying for a job on the Copilot team,” drawing amused reactions from attendees.

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Nadella’s interest in cricket goes far beyond casual fandom. He is part of a group of technology executives that recently purchased a 49 percent stake in the London Spirit franchise in England’s Hundred competition. He is also a co-owner of the Seattle Orcas, a Major League Cricket team based near Microsoft’s headquarters. These ventures, combined with his personal coding projects, reflect how intertwined the sport has become with his professional and personal life.

During his India visit, Nadella also made a significant policy announcement: Microsoft plans to invest USD 17.5 billion over the next four years to expand its AI and cloud capabilities in the country. The investment signals India’s rising importance within Microsoft’s global roadmap, even as Nadella’s offbeat cricket experiment captured much of the public’s imagination.

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Nadella is meeting business leaders and government officials during his time in India, with discussions expected to span AI regulation, cloud infrastructure and developer ecosystem partnerships. Yet it was his candid retelling of holiday coding, cricket debates and a dream Test XI that ended up stealing the spotlight at the Bengaluru event.