The people behind the investment
Building useful AI takes research, products, people and financial judgement. These women help connect those pieces, deciding how growing technology businesses fund their ambitions and put their resources to work. We checked their roles against company biographies, announcements and recent interviews on 5 November 2026.
Sarah Friar: CFO, OpenAI
Sarah Friar joined OpenAI as Chief Financial Officer in June 2024 and remains in that role. She is also putting AI to work inside finance. In an August 2026 account, she described her team's progress towards continuously updated forecasts and faster financial reporting, with people responsible for the decisions and controls. An October interview confirms her continuing role.
Anat Ashkenazi: SVP and CFO, Alphabet and Google
Anat Ashkenazi leads finance at Alphabet and Google. On the company's 28 October 2026 earnings call, she explained the financial outlook and the investment supporting its expanding AI and cloud businesses. Her work connects the resources needed for research and computing infrastructure with the discipline of running a global company.
Susan Li: CFO, Meta
Susan Li leads Meta's finance and facilities teams. She joined the company in 2008 and became CFO in 2022, bringing years of experience in financial planning and capital allocation to its next phase. Her role places her at the centre of the financial decisions supporting Meta's products, infrastructure and AI ambitions.
Amy Hood: EVP and CFO, Microsoft
Amy Hood has served as Microsoft's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 2013. She leads its global finance organisation, with responsibilities spanning financial planning, reporting, acquisitions, treasury and investor relations. As Microsoft expands its cloud and AI businesses, she helps connect investment choices with the company's long-term priorities.
Hilary Maxson: CFO, Oracle
Hilary Maxson became Oracle's Chief Financial Officer on 6 April 2026, joining from Schneider Electric, where she was Executive Vice President and Group CFO. Her experience across infrastructure, industrial and software businesses is especially relevant as Oracle expands cloud capacity for AI training and inference. She leads the company's global finance organisation.
Colette Kress: EVP and CFO, NVIDIA
Colette Kress has been NVIDIA's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since September 2013. Her earlier finance leadership roles included Cisco and Microsoft. At a company supplying computing technology for AI, she brings that experience to financial strategy and the resources supporting its growth.
Ruth Porat: President and Chief Investment Officer, Alphabet and Google
Ruth Porat's current role is President and Chief Investment Officer, following her earlier service as CFO. Her remit includes corporate investments, GV, CapitalG, Other Bets and company infrastructure. Google identified her in this role again in its 4 November 2026 Malaysia investment announcement, connecting infrastructure expansion with digital opportunity and skills.
Jenna Fisher: helping build the next generation of finance leaders
Jenna Fisher is a leadership adviser at Russell Reynolds Associates, where she co-leads the Global Financial Officers Practice. She helps organisations find CFOs and board members and has written about women's paths to senior leadership in To the Top. Her contribution is to the leadership pipeline, alongside the executives running finance inside technology companies.