Board member, Independent Board Member
Search every verified Diane Greene interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Diane Greene, the co-founder and former CEO of VMware and former CEO of Google Cloud, has been speaking about the transformative potential and risks of artificial intelligence. In an April 2025 keynote, she stated that "the AI revolution is changing our civilization in yet undetermined ways" and noted that "all big technology shifts come with both good and bad." She cited AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton's estimate of a 10 to 20 percent chance that AI could lead to human extinction, giving the example of a well-intentioned system that "could misinterpret goals and might reason that it could cure disease by eliminating humans." Greene also expressed concern about job displacement, saying that "Spotify just told its managers they couldn't hire unless they could prove AI couldn't do the job" and that "traditional entry level roles in law, software, medicine, architecture and banking are easily automated by AI." Greene has also reflected on her career and the culture she built at VMware. She described taking "an unusually generous approach to stock" and said she had "been called a socialist by VCs," but added that she believes the approach "helped set a culture that we wanted to be a part of." She recounted that during the dot-com crash in April 2000, when VCs wanted to lower VMware's valuation, she "said no and closed the Dell deal the next day." Greene also discussed her experience at Google Cloud, stating that it "grew from 1 to 8 billion in annual recurring revenue in three years" and that it was "very challenging to push for what the enterprise needed." She addressed the controversy over Google's Department of Defense Maven contract, saying the company "signed the contract to provide AI for mine detection and disaster response" and that the Department of Defense told her the resulting headlines "really bore the hallmarks of foreign interference from state actors."
“We took an unusually generous approach to stock and I've been called a socialist by VCs. I'm not. But I think the approach helped set a culture that we wanted to be a part of.”
“After the first year of sales we were managing to run break even and decided we should bring in professional investors to help build IPO credibility. We chose two top VC firms, got to a fully negotiated term sheet. I'd on purpose kept the valuation low because I wanted to ensure that our IPO would be an up round. That'...”
“In April 2000 when the dot-com era came to a crashing halt and the market went through a major adjustment, the VCs explained to me that they would need to have our valuation. I said no and closed the Dell deal the next day. And to his credit Michael Dell downloaded and ran the workstation product before he invested.”
“The absence of technical women among the elite voices shaping policy in Washington is not good for society especially now in a time of AI transformation.”
“When the money, the status and the fame arrived, the men pushed the women out. I realized I'd seen the pattern. Early wind surfing certainly welcomed everyone; the well-established field of naval architecture and ocean engineering did not.”
“Google Cloud grew from 1 to 8 billion in annual recurring revenue in three years. It was fascinating but very challenging to push for what the enterprise needed, everything from no liability legal contracts to professional services to endless product features.”
“The AI revolution is changing our civilization in yet undetermined ways and there doesn't seem to be an inherent limit to AI's fast growing capabilities. All big technology shifts come with both good and bad.”
“Job displacement is an immediate concern. Spotify just told its managers they couldn't hire unless they could prove AI couldn't do the job. Traditional entry level roles in law, software, medicine, architecture and banking are easily automated by AI.”
“Google's Department of Defense Maven contract blew up. At Google Cloud we signed the contract to provide AI for mine detection and disaster response. It was non-lethal. But then suddenly there were headlines that said Google is building AI for killing. The Department of Defense told me it really bore the hallmarks of f...”
“Jeffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, estimates a 10 to 20% chance that AI could lead to human extinction. For example, a well-intentioned system could misinterpret goals and might reason that it could cure disease by eliminating humans which are disease carriers.”
“The way you do something disruptive is you have to make it completely non-disruptive to adopt.”
“I'm the founder of VMware and served as CEO of Google Cloud.”
“My second startup was VMware; we launched the virtualization revolution.”
“It's seen all the data in the world can connect very disparate things.”
“I graduated in computer science at UC Berkeley — there were many brilliant and rebellious personalities and a lot of women in my graduate program.”
Keynote speaker Diane Greene, Founder and CEO of VMWare, recounts her career growth and events and discusses the impact ...
Pair Berkeley founders with the right resources, and they're unstoppable. Diane Greene built VMware from the ground up and ...
This is session 15 of Technology-enabled Blitzscaling, a Stanford University class taught by Reid Hoffman, John Lilly, Allen Blue, ...
Join Diane Greene, founder of VMware, ex-CEO of Google Cloud, and Chair of the MIT Corporation for a wrap up discussion on the future of AI, AI & Cloud, AI & Education, and more. Interview moderated by Jack Sweeney and hosted at the MIT GenAI Summit on March 3rd, 2023.
Watch more videos from MIT: http://www.youtube.com/user/MITNewsOffice?sub_confirmation=1 The Massachusetts Institute of ...
Fireside Chat: Diane Greene, Former CEO of Google Cloud, Founder & Former CEO, VMware and Kobie Fuller, General Partner, Upfront Ventures --------- Subscribe to Global Silicon Valley to view more ASU+GSV Summit content: https://bit.ly/2HlXGml Register for the ASU+GSV 2021 Summit: https://www.asugsvsummit.com/
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... in a conversation with Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene. Healthcare promises great innovations from Artificial Intelligence.
Diane Greene, CEO, Google Cloud, sits with John Furrier & Dave Vellante for Google Cloud Next 2018 in San Francisco, CA. #GoogleNext18 #theCUBE https://siliconangle.com/2018/07/27/g... Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene plays the long game, but will it be enough? In the race for enterprise cloud market share, where Amazon Web Services Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s Azure currently dominate, Google Cloud’s strategy has resembled slow and steady, with a methodical approach that has involved incubating sophisticated engineering-centric products internally first and then gradually rolling them out to…
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