CFO AI leaders in focus to drive productivity and labor

As AI reshapes industries, theCUBE team is preparing for a packed 2025, with major events such as CES on the horizon and continued collaborations planned with the NYSE. The 2025 tech outlook and CFO AI leaders were a big focus for theCUBE Research industry analysts John Furrier (pictured, left) and Dave Vellante (right) to discuss on the latest episode of the CUBE Podcast.

Looking ahead into 2025, it’s worth considering broader moves, such as the the Federal Reserve announcing a cut to its key interest rate. That impacts many things, according to Furrier.

“I think productivity in job creation will be a big factor,” Furrier said. “AI is not going to take more jobs. I think it’s going to create more jobs and more productivity. So, I’m a big believer in that.”

CFO AI leaders

At the recent theCUBE + NYSE Wired CFO Summit, a key insight emerged: CFOs are positioned to be leaders in AI-driven business transformation. The CFO AI leader necessity comes at a time when productivity and labor is front and center.

Twenty years ago, IT shifted from hardware management to democratization with Web 2.0, then cloud and software as a service. Today, AI drives digital transformation into business model innovation, led by CFOs, CISOs and CXOs, according to Furrier.

“It’s no longer a decision-maker, recommender and influencer like the old way,”  he said. “It’s now a collection of decision-makers, different personas making a decision together. So, that’s one dynamic.”

CFOs are tasked with aligning financial strategy to business strategy, ensuring funding for revenue growth and cost efficiency. With AI radically transforming business models, CFOs play a key role in addressing both cost and revenue impacts, according to Furrier.

“CFOs know the blueprints of an organization. Think like building a big skyscraper. You’ve got to get an architect to draw the blueprints out, and then they do the build-out. CFOs know all the linkages. They know all the interdependencies,” Furrier said of CFO AI leaders. “They actually know the business architecture better than anybody.”

When it comes to conversations around end-to-end workflows and data silos being busted down, it’s the CFOs that will be able to identify the linkages to connect and re-architect for more money flow, according to Furrier. CFO AI leaders are a real trend that played out at the recent summit.

“It’s very clear as day that the CFO can’t be a passive bystander in the equation. I’m so excited and completely re-energized by this, and you’ll see a lot more content coming,” Furrier said.

Perspective on Intel spinning out foundry

In a recent edition of his Breaking Analysis series, Vellante wrote that the time for Intel Corp. to shed its foundry business is now. It comes as the company is struggling to compete with global leaders while facing significant financial challenges.

“Intel has a big investment in foundry. They have $100 billion, literally $100 billion of plant property and equipment on their balance sheet. And the balance sheet is a nightmare,” Vellante said.

The stakes for Intel, however, go beyond the company itself. There needs to be U.S.-based advanced manufacturing, according to Vellante.

“I think it should be, in my opinion, U.S.-headquartered-based companies, and I think it should be funded by not only the U.S. government with the CHIPS Act … but I think Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and even a little bit of Nvidia should throw in some cash,” he said.

Databricks’ $62B valuation

Last week, Databricks Inc. announced it was raising a late-stage $10 billion funding round at a $62 billion valuation. It further solidifies its position as one of the leading companies in AI and data platforms.

“Ten billion dollars, $62 billion … just as a data point, Snowflake is valued at $55 billion. Just let that bake,” Vellante said.

The traditional purpose of going public was to raise capital, provide liquidity to investors and give retail investors access to the stock. However, with private IPO markets emerging through secondary sales and insider rounds, things are changing.

“These markets, where people sell employee shares or investors get liquid, they lock in their returns, and then they’re playing with house money. So, the investors are getting liquid and the employees are getting some liquidity,” Furrier said. “Now, it’s a little bit not democratized — it’s probably directed and intentional.”

Watch the full podcast below to find out why these industry pros were mentioned:

Brian J. Baumann, director of Capital Markets at NYSE
Jerry Chen, general partner at Greylock Partners
Lori Beer, global CIO of JPMorgan Chase
Karen Walker, CFO of Sysdig
George Gilbert, senior analyst at theCUBE Research
Ginni Rometty, co-chairman of OneTen, former CEO of IBM
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
Pat Gelsinger, former CEO of Intel
Matt Garman, CEO of AWS
David Floyer, analyst emeritus at theCUBE Research
Ben Bajarin, principal analyst and CEO of Creative Strategies
Patrick Moorhead, founder, chief analyst and CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy
Pete Sonsini, general partner at New Enterprise Associates
Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Laude Ventures, Databricks and Perplexity
Peter McKay, CEO of Snyk
Donald Trump, 45th U.S. president
Bill Tai, venture capitalist, athlete, adjunct professor
Morris Chang, Taiwanese-American businessman
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia
Joe Biden, 46th United States president
Barack Obama, 44th U.S. president
Milton Friedman, American economist and statistician
Ken Olson, co-founder of Digital Equipment Corporation
Alan Shugart, American engineer and entrepreneur
Doug Cutting, software designer
Kara Swisher, journalist
Walt Mossberg, American journalist
Analisa Goodin, CEO of Catch+Release
Sanjeev Mohan, principal at SanjMo
Tony Baer, principal at dbInsight
Doug Henschen, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research
Brad Shimmin, chief analyst for AI platforms, analytics and data management at Omdia, a TechTarget company
Carl Olofson, VP at IDC
Erik Bradley, chief strategist and director of research at ETR

Here’s the full theCUBE Pod episode:

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Photo: SiliconANGLE