Amy Hood

The finance chief behind Microsoft's AI build-out

Amy Hood is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. The company's executive biography says she leads its worldwide finance organization, covering accounting and reporting, acquisitions and business development, financial planning and analysis, global real estate, internal audit, investor relations, tax planning and treasury.^[1]

Her role was confirmed again in July 2026: Microsoft's annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026 carries her Sarbanes-Oxley certification as executive vice president and chief financial officer, dated July 29, 2026.^[4]

From Goldman Sachs to the CFO seat

Hood holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard University. Before Microsoft she worked at Goldman Sachs in investment banking and capital markets. She joined Microsoft in December 2002, in investor relations.^[1][2]

Microsoft's 2013 announcement records the stages that followed: chief of staff in the Server and Tools group, then head of strategy and business development in the Business Division, then, in January 2010, chief financial officer of that division, which at the time was a $24.1 billion business. In that role she helped drive the Skype and Yammer acquisitions.^[2]

Named CFO in 2013

On May 8, 2013, Microsoft named Hood chief financial officer, effective immediately, succeeding Peter Klein, who stayed through the end of June to ease the handover. She was 41 and, as Fortune notes, the first woman to hold the role at the company. Then-CEO Steve Ballmer credited her with leading the shift to services with Office 365 and with strong financial and operational management.^[2][3]

In the announcement she said she planned to maintain cost discipline and a focus on shareholder value and looked forward to working closely with investors.^[2]

Deals and growth

Microsoft's biography credits her with deep involvement in the strategy and execution of the company's acquisitions of Activision Blizzard, LinkedIn and GitHub, and describes her as a strategic partner to CEO Satya Nadella. It also credits her with helping drive the company's growth in cloud and AI.^[1]

Fortune, which ranked her No. 38 on its 2026 Most Powerful Women list, says Microsoft's annual revenue more than tripled during her tenure to $281.7 billion in fiscal 2025.^[3]

AI decisions and the infrastructure cycle

Fortune says Hood has helped shape major AI choices, including the OpenAI partnership and the large investment in the infrastructure behind Azure and Copilot. It notes that in late 2024 and early 2025 Microsoft reassessed the pace of its AI build-out and briefly delayed some data center projects, which unsettled some investors, and describes her as balancing heavy spending with financial discipline.^[3]

Fiscal 2026 results

Microsoft's results for the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, 2026 showed revenue of $90.0 billion, up 18 percent, and GAAP net income of $35.8 billion, up 31 percent, with Azure and other cloud services revenue up 43 percent. In the release Hood called it a strong close to the year, citing Microsoft Cloud revenue of $59.3 billion, up 27 percent. For the full year, revenue was $331.8 billion, up 18 percent, and additions to property and equipment were $115.9 billion, up from $64.6 billion.^[5]

On the July 29 earnings call, as summarized by MarketBeat, Hood said demand continued to exceed available capacity. She guided to Azure growth of about 45 percent in constant currency for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, to first-quarter capital spending above $50 billion, and to fiscal 2027 capital spending of about $175 billion, and said she expected another year of double-digit revenue and operating-income growth with operating margins declining by less than one percentage point. The summary is secondhand, and exact wording and figures should be checked against Microsoft's transcript and filings.^[6]

Why she matters

Hood sits at the point where Microsoft's AI ambitions meet its balance sheet. Additions to property and equipment of $115.9 billion in a single year, set against $133.7 billion of net income, makes the pace and financing of data center capacity one of the defining questions for the company, and she is the executive who presents that trade-off to investors each quarter.^[5][3]

On The Executive List

Amy Hood is ranked No. 21 on The Executive List (October 2026) in the Chief Financial Officers discipline. The ranking reflects The Executive Review's own editorial Trending Score; it is not an outside award, and placement on the list is never sold. View the October 2026 edition.