Microsoft has appointed Pavan Davuluri as the new head of the Windows and Surface division. After Panos Panayi’s unexpected move to Amazon, Microsoft split the Windows and Surface groups last year under two different leaders.
Davuluri led the work on Surface chips and devices, while Mikhail Parakhin led a new team focused on Windows and web services. Now, Windows and Surface are back together and will report to Davuluri, as Parakhin «has decided to explore new roles».
The Verge has obtained an internal Microsoft memo describing the new organization of the Windows business. Microsoft is merging the Windows and Device teams again.
«This will allow us to take a holistic approach to building chips, systems, experiences, and devices that span the Windows client and the cloud for this era of AI,» explains Rajesh Jha, head of Microsoft’s Experience and Devices business.
Pawan Davuluri is currently the head of Microsoft’s Windows and Surface group, reporting directly to Rajesh Jha. Davuluri has worked at Microsoft for more than 23 years and has been actively involved in the company’s work with Qualcomm and AMD to develop custom processors for Surface devices.
Mikhail Parakhin will now report to Kevin Scott during the transition phase, but his future at Microsoft looks uncertain, and it is likely that these «new roles» will be outside the company. Parakhin worked closely on Bing Chat before taking on broader responsibility for Windows development and changes to Microsoft Edge.
The changes in the Windows group came just days after Mustafa Suleiman, co-founder of Google DeepMind and former CEO of Inflection AI, joins Microsoft as CEO of the new artificial intelligence team. Microsoft has also hired a group of Inflection AI employees, including co-founder Karen Simonian, who is now the chief scientist at Microsoft AI. As a result, most of Inflection’s employees are joining Microsoft AI. It looks like a talent acquisition to avoid direct regulatory control.
Currently, Suleiman is the general manager of the new Microsoft AI team that will develop consumer-facing AI products such as Copilot, Bing, and Edge. Suleiman reports directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Jha says that the Windows «team will work closely with the Microsoft AI team on AI, chips, and experience», but there will be some interesting areas of potential overlap that these new leaders will have to navigate.
Source: The Verge