- Google Cloud snagged a key Oracle financial executive to help lead its AI charge and cloud expansion effort
- The addition is just one of several Google Cloud has made in recent months
- AWS also reportedly lost an executive integral to its recent AI releases
Google Cloud is apparently looking to supercharge its cloud and AI efforts with some very specific financial expertise. The company poached Oracle’s cloud finance guru Kobi Bar-Nathan to become Google Cloud’s next CFO, his LinkedIn profile shows.
Bar-Nathan spent nearly the last six years at Oracle, serving first as VP of Finance for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and then the unit’s CFO. But before that he also spent more than 10 years at Microsoft from 2008 to 2018, where he worked in various financial roles culminating in nearly four years spent as Finance Director for Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure.
Kathy Bonanno, Bar-Nathan’s predecessor, appears to have left the role in May, according to her LinkedIn profile.
"The hire of Kobi brings that different perspective to Google Cloud, which should in turn make Google Cloud a stronger player in the cloud services market," Recon Analytics' Daryl SChoolar told Fierce. "It is a safe bet some of the specific market knowledge Kobi Bar-Nathan gained at Oracle he won’t be able to share at Google due to confidentiality agreements, but he should be able to leverage some of the broader market insights and strategies he learned during his time at Oracle."
Google Cloud was a loss making business for several years, but began turning a profit in Q1 2023. Its initial operating profit was $191 million, but in the two years since then that figure has jumped drastically to $2.1 billion in Q1 2025.
The company appears to be fortifying its ranks as it squares off with Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle for cloud and AI revenue and works on a massive expansion of its data center footprint.
Earlier this month, Google reportedly named its DeepMind CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu to a newly created chief AI architect role. In January, the tech giant hired former Illumina CEO Francis DeSouza as COO at Google Cloud and poached Microsoft exec Rehan Sheikh for a position as Google Cloud’s VP of Global Silicon Chip Technology and Manufacturing.
"Overall, Google Cloud’s recent hiring [spree] is a positive message to the market showing the company remains firmly committed to its cloud business," Schoolar added. "Given the competitive nature of the cloud services business, this is important in building long-term confidence with its service partners and customers and can be spun as a competitive advantage versus AWS, Microsoft and other cloud providers."
AWS shakeup
But Bar-Nathan isn’t the only key executive making moves. Amazon also lost its VP of Generative AI, according to a fresh report from Reuters.
It’s not clear yet where the exec – Vasi Philomin – is headed. But his LinkedIn profile makes clear that Philomin was an integral part of Amazon’s AI efforts in recent years. Among other things, Philomin appears to have been deeply involved in building Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q and Amazon CodeWhisperer.
His departure marks the second exit of a major Amazon AI executive in less than a year. In October 2024, AWS VP of AI Matt Wood left the company after 15 years to become the CTIO at PwC. Wood was also involved in the rollout of Amazon Q, which he described as “the easy button for Generative AI.”
At present, another long-time Amazon exec is leading the AI charge. Swami Sivasubramanian, who was most recently VP of AI and Data at AWS, is now its head of Agentic AI. His appointment to the role coincided with AWS’ creation of a new Agentic AI business group in March.
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