AI TRENDS | Satya Nadella Says Companies Must Build Human and Token Capital

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella published a long post on X titled “A Frontier Without an Ecosystem Is Not Stable.” According to Odaily, Nadella wrote that every company in the future will need to build two forms of capital: human capital and token capital. He described human capital as employees’ knowledge, judgment, interpersonal networks, creativity, and pattern-recognition abilities. He defined token capital as the AI capabilities a company owns and develops. Nadella said that as token capital grows, human capital does not lose value and instead becomes more important. He added that human agency is the core driver of token capital growth, with people responsible for setting ambitious goals, connecting information across domains, building relationship networks, and identifying meaningful patterns. He wrote that without human guidance, computing power lacks direction. Nadella said the main opportunity is not choosing which model is best, but building a learning loop around models so human capital and token capital can grow together.