Microsoft CEO takes stand in Google trial

Nadella says search giant's edge could allow it to dominate AI

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, testified Monday that Google's power in online search was so ubiquitous that even his company found it difficult to compete on the internet, becoming the government's highest-profile witness in its landmark antitrust trial against the search giant.

In more than three hours of testimony in federal court in Washington, Nadella was often direct and sometimes combative as he laid out how Microsoft could not overcome Google's use of multibillion-dollar deals to be the default search engine on smartphones and web browsers.

The internet was really the “Google web,” Nadella told the packed courtroom, adding that Google could now use its advantage and scale to build tools to dominate the emerging artificial intelligence industry.

The image of the CEO of a leading tech rival — Microsoft is one of the world's biggest public companies, valued at $2.4 trillion — saying it could not easily fight Google was striking. Nadella's testimony underscored how entrenched Google has become in online search as the government seeks to prove that the company broke monopoly laws by striking anticompetitive deals to crush rivals.

Nadella's appearance on the witness stand in the case — U.S. et al v. Google, which is the first monopoly trial of the modern internet era — was also a sign that the bitter rivalry between Microsoft and Google continues unfettered. Over more than two decades, the two companies have battled over online search, mobile computing, web browsing and cloud computing and dueled in multiple legal battles as both became ever more powerful. Now the companies are locked in an increasingly intense fight over AI.

“Despite my enthusiasm that there is a new angle with AI, I worry a lot that this vicious cycle that I'm trapped in could get even more vicious,” Nadella said.

Regulators around the world have been working to rein in the power and reach of Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon, arguing it broke antitrust laws by squeezing merchants on its site. The FTC has also filed an antitrust lawsuit against Meta, claiming it snuffed out nascent rivals, and the Justice Department has