This content is an interview with Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, discussing his personal journey from South India to leading a global tech giant, his views on technology's role in accessibility and progress, and Google's strategic direction, particularly in AI and future technologies.
All right, Ohio. Good morning, everybody.
everybody.
Uh, did anybody like Metallica last night?
night?
>> What about Benson Boone? Did you see him?
him?
>> Great. Yeah, Metallica. They were really
on. I'm tired.
Yeah, I really slept with one eye open
last night.
Um, okay. Well, we have a great uh
morning for you. Are you all excited to
meet Sundar?
>> All right, Sundar. Where are you? We
need you, Sundar. Come on out, Sundar.
Here he comes. Sundar, everybody.
Good to see you. How are you, man?
>> Well, great.
>> All right. We're so thrilled to have
Sundar this morning and it is going to
be a great interview we're going to do
here. We're going to spend 38 minutes.
Uh 40 minutes. As much time as you want.
>> Well, as much time as you want. So, it's
>> true. It is as much time as I want. Okay.
Okay.
>> Very, very excited to be here. It's a
beautiful theater.
>> It is a beautiful, you know, I we're
talking backstage. This was a famous
theater for me because all of the Apple
product launches that I loved were all here.
here. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And Steve Jobs was here. and I kind of
feel like he left a little bit of his
magic behind on the stage and it's just
a great place to be.
>> Good karma.
>> Absolutely. So anyway, Sundar, you know,
we know each other very well and we have
been to many many different kind of
programs together and also a lot of
personal events, some wonderful happy
situations, some sad situations. we've
had every possible situation together.
And I think, you know, when I was
thinking about this interview on the way in
in
what occurred to me was um you know,
does everybody really know you? And I
would really like just to take a few
minutes and try to let people know who
you are because as I was saying
backstage, you're from my very favorite
part of India, from the south. Um
everybody knows I like a good masala dosa.
dosa.
and ma makes two of us. So
>> one thing I love about the south is you
know the the the the women are in charge
of the household. The mothers are in
charge and um and the gurus are the
women. Um I met an incredible guru in
Travandram you know in Carerala in the
backwaters of the Arabian Sea named
Amichi who's amazing had a huge impact
on my life. But that idea of growing up
in South India and the the values of
South India and the mystique and the
energy and the matriarchy h how tell us
about that and then you know let's well
let's and then let's get you all the way
from that point when you were there and
I and Stanford but first let's go back
to South India and then just give
everyone a flavor for Sundar. Wow. I
didn't expect it to start there, but uh
definitely a trip down uh nostalgia. I
mean, you're right. It's a special place
obviously. And you know, my mom had a
you know, I learned my love of reading
from my granddad, her father, and my
mother. Uh you know, she used to be a
voracious reader. Uh she, you know, she
because of financial circumstances never
went past high school, but she was she
used to read a lot. And so that's where
my love of learning and knowledge kind
of uh you know came. I think growing up
there you know obviously strong family
values extraordinary focus on learning
and knowledge and acquiring uh wisdom
over the years. And so it's not an
accident. I think it kind of led me to
Google over time uh given what our
mission is and so on. But I you know I
had to wait for every piece of
technology for a long time in my life.
waited five years to get a rotary phone
and when the phone came
>> five years for a rotary phone
>> because the government made it at that
time and there's a long waiting list
>> but the but the minute the phone came to
the house uh we were one of the first in
the neighborhood people would come to
the house called their families it kind
of like created a community around it so
for me it was you know incredible to see
how getting access to technology can
have this profound shift in your life to
wait for a long time to get access to a
computer. So that's what led me to this journey.
journey.
>> How old were you when you first had
access to a computer?
>> You know, I seen and had like, you know,
you could get an hour of use maybe like
once every two to three months. But when
I came to Stanford is when you could
walk down to a lab and there were
workstations and like I could open Emacs
and I was, you know, it was a whole world.
world.
>> That's where access was opportunity.
>> Yeah, that's right. And that's what
always reinforced to me that you know
all of us are in this world of we're
trying to give people access to
technology and and you see that step
change that comes with it and and it's a
journey and with AI I think we have a
chance to do a step even more. You
mentioned South India I called Prime
Minister of India this on Sunday night.
You know, I used to take this train,
>> Prime Minister Modi.
>> Prime Minister Modi,
>> I used to take this train through the
south of India and there's this town
called Visag. It's a beautiful coastal
town growing up. And we announced our
We announced our largest ever AI
investment outside the US. a $15 billion
1 gawatt plus data center 80% powered by
clean energy with subc cables going in
that the the chance to transform
a region like that with a with a kind of
investment it really meant a lot to be
able to call the prime minister who
really cares about developing the
country and this has been his vision I
know you know him well too and so anyway
it's extraordinary to see the impact of
all this
>> very exciting and it's a great way to
give back so You really see that this
kind of technology giving access even
being developed and this nod to south
India there. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Very good. It sounded like there's a lot
of folks here from India or know vicead
stand up if you're from India actually.
Would you well be welcomed?
So, okay. Well, let's let's talk about
that. So, here we are. I Well, I think
I've started the conversation in the
right way. Would you agree that we have
to connect to India to understand you?
And here you are. You're growing up in
South India. You're getting um you're
getting a vision for technology. The
idea that access is opportunity. Um
you're now in pursuit of IIT probably
the fi one of the finest institutes uh
in India for technology. you know when
when did you make that decision that
technology was going to be your passion? Uh
Uh
>> look I mean I I was uh uh very
interested in physics. I was fascinated
with semiconductors and computers and so
to me it was literal you know I
literally wanted to be this place was
called Silicon Valley. So it's the best
advertising ever, right? You know, as a
kid growing up, you know, you're
interested in semiconductors, this
wonder that you could turn sand into
into this thing, uh, which is the, uh,
you know, substrate of, uh, uh, the
digital age. And so for me, I literally
wanted to be in Silicon Valley because
that's what I was interested in. And,
you know, I was very inspired by the one
laptop per child project from MIT. Uh,
what Negra Ponti was working on. This is
the one laptop per child where they're
going to try to put this kind of uh
lowcost computer in the hands of every
child in the world but especially
targeting India. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And it was going to be a very very
lowcost computer was and it was Nicholas
was really the visionary behind it.
>> That's right. And I you know I have to
uh you know in some ways I I can
directly link that to my work on
Chromebooks many years later. Right. So
the fact that
>> that must have been now the I mean one
laptop per child that was
>> in the mid '9s I think that's right 94
95 96 I I don't remember the exact dates it's
it's
>> you were right and around the time it
came to the US but what's extraordinary
is his vision of making that possible uh
I think made a lot of progress quite
couldn't get there uh but you know for
me it always uh you know it later played
out not just in Chromebooks but we
eventually ended up giving pretty much
everyone a mobile phone which is a
computer in their hands with Android 2.
Um, you know, now you have I all around
the world be it in the US, be it in
Brazil, be it in Indonesia, be in India, Africa.
Africa.
>> Was there also a browser on that Android phone?
phone?
>> That's right. What's say
>> there's a browser on that phone?
>> There's a browser.
>> We're going to get there. We're going to
get there. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
Yeah. I'm looking forward to it.
>> You know, I'm going there.
>> Yeah. I'm looking forward to it.
uh look I but but I think that inspired
me and and so in some ways uh you know
the chance and the thing that attracted
me to Google was literally in the
mission statement and I I'm very serious
about it the phrase to make information
universally accessible and useful. That
phrase is why I joined Google because it
resonated so much with me. Right? This
is about giving access to information
knowledge to everyone in the world and
and and that journey continues across
all of us. I think AI is the ultimate
expression of that, right? It's really
giving a true knowledge, collaborator,
companion, however you want to think
about it, to access to everyone in the
world, regardless of where you're from.
Uh and and and so it's a great
equalizer, I think.
>> Well, it's an amazing vision now. And
you're in pursuit of IIT with this
inspiration. You go sail through IIT.
It's amazing. And then somehow you know
you want to go to Stanford. Was that
when did that occur?
>> I mean you know I mean it's a you know
it's a fortunate opportunity and uh for
me you know I had the chance to go to a
few places. Stanford happened to be in
Silicon Valley. So it was uh it was uh
everything was uh straightforward. The
only thing I felt maybe misled was the
professor who emailed me said it's
really nice and warm and beautiful
weather. But I think kind of coming from
south India when people say warm
I remember the first time I went to the
ocean I was so excited I went into the
water and I was like no this is not warm
>> this is not this is not the backwaters
of the Arabian scene no okay
>> it was a bit different having said that
you know it is the birthplace of uh uh
semiconductors and uh the stories around
you know fair child and national I mean
you you see the history back and uh so
it's a real special place So I felt home
when I came here.
>> Well, you're you're helping me remember
all of my great times in South India too
and the warmth and the energy and the
mysticism and all that. I remember some
a lot of times being there and uh
spending time you know uh with uh Amichi
and also um uh friend of mine there am
Amita Supa Nanda as well and it's just
an incredible place and it is a it feels
a long way from here
>> but I guess it's it's actually much
closer because here we are together
right now and so now here you are you've
kind of gone through that whole
experience you're all the way at IIT and
now you're on your way to Stanford. What
are your what is your family thinking at
this point?
>> Uh, look, I um I mean I mean now you
step back, you know, I I just became an
empty neester this year and you have you
have this incredible access to your kids
and it's still very very hard. I can't
believe in those days uh when I came
here it was probably $2.30
per minute to call back home. >> Yes.
>> Yes.
>> Right. and and uh so you know if you
ever think the the curve of how
technology makes things more accessible
yeah it was you know used to write
letters back then because it was so
expensive to call now you know I'm
fortunate enough you know I I see my
parents regularly and I'm uh you know
stay in close touch with them but you
know they talk about you know just just
like you kind of disappear from their uh
life but so I'm glad we we're working
all you know I look at There's a product
we are working on called uh Google beam
and which really when you when two
people talk you feel like physically
they are in the same place. Part of the
reason I'm motivated by all that is like
you know you know you realize people
today you know imagine veterans being
deployed and being away from their
families or something like that. So I
think it's important to connect people.
>> All right. So here we are now. We're at
Stanford. The favorite son has left the
home. There it's there's a distance. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Um you're lonely it sounds like at
Stanford. Uh you're missing the
misaladosa. You're
>> you're in Palo Alto.
>> I was missing my girlfriend then. My
wife now your girlfriend now your wife.
Very nice.
>> She was she went to uh college with me
and so yeah all of that.
>> Very good.
>> I spent all my money calling her pretty
much. Yeah. It's literally true.
>> Very good. Do you want to say more about
>> At some point, we have to bring it to
agent force. And
>> we really don't actually. It's this is
better than that. We've been talking
about that for days.
>> Talking about
>> Yeah, we're already on board the agent
force phenomenon. We got that. But this
is more interesting. The girlfriend, the
wife, the phone calls,
freezing in PaloAlto.
Uh, I I definitely didn't expect uh all
of this. So,
>> bathing bathing in the Pacific Ocean,
>> which which you know, I only did it
once, by the way. Uh, super cold. Still
haven't quite uh quite gotten used to
it. Uh, where are we now? Look, I mean,
uh, but no, I think it's important that
we talk. First of all, we have a you can
see we have a great connection, number
one, but number two, this is the this is
the Sundar I know. So that's what I'm
trying to do is I think a lot you know
my like I said my write in I was just
thinking to myself a lot of people they
just don't have the opportunity to
realize the person that I know so well
your heart you know your your your your
life your connection
and you know now okay so anyway let's
just get back to the story you're in
Stanford now right and now all of a
sudden you kind of see this new world
and it is a different world you're you
are in Palo Alto it's it's not is cold.
There's a whole thing going on, right?
And so what is your biggest surprise now
that you're in PaloAlto besides the weather?
weather?
>> Oh, I mean, look, I um I think I mean,
we take this for granted uh in in the
valley and in a place like Stanford and
uh I mean it's I mean America is truly a
land of opportunity in a way that phrase
I think very few people really
understand uh uh you know it deeply and
uh it's extraordinary. uh you can come
here and you know if you're willing to
work hard pursue your dreams uh anything
is possible right and it was kind of
obvious to me once I came in uh you know
if you're passionate about something you
meet other people who are passionate
about it uh this is a place of dreamers
and builders you're excited about
something people want to build on that
idea uh you know it's almost like they
want to compose that with you that is so
unique uh unique about about the place
we live in. Uh and so that struck me as
a you know this this optimism
uh this real desire to make the world
better. Uh you know and and sometimes we
all are so used to it sometimes. I think
you know we get jaded with technology or
something we forget that I feel it now
when I travel around the world and you
go to places where they don't have
access to this technology they so want
to be a part of it. Here we have it,
right? And and and you know, I think
we've gone through these waves, but that
is the essence of this place, I think,
and you brought it back to the the
theater in which Steve Jobs did some of
those uh you know, pathbreaking
announcements, but I think that's the
spirit of this place. I felt it at
Stanford. Um and I I feel it today.
>> So now here you are. You're you're
feeling it. You are connected to the
energy of Silicon Valley, the magic of
what's happening, Stanford, kind of the
heart of it all, near the garages where
these great companies have started, like
HP, like Apple. You're starting to meet
these cast of characters. It's like
going to Disneyland, right? You're
meeting Donald Duck. You're meeting
you're meeting Mickey Mouse in person
for the first time. And now you're in
Stanford and are you at this point
thinking, "Okay, I heard about this
company, Google. It's 2004. This is
where I'm heading. Is that the Is that
the direction at this point?
>> Look, um I was in I was in Stanford in
the '90s and uh you know this was the
time uh when uh Mosaic and you know
Mosaic had launched and uh ironically I
think Larry and Sig were at Stanford at
the same time. I don't think I knew them
or uh we didn't overlap.
>> You didn't know them at the time?
>> Uh no I didn't know them at the time.
You know my I I was I was focused on
different things. I was very interested
in semiconductors. That was my area of
research. Uh that's what I was working
on. Uh I was so excited to have access
to all that. I almost didn't realize
there was this thing called the internet
which was happening. So but you know a
few years later uh you know had the
chance to get to know a few people and
when the internet was really taking off
when I I started using Google early um
and the first time I started using it I
realized this is going to give more
access to information to more
>> this must be what 96 97
>> no Google wasn't there Google started in
99 I first used it in about 2000
>> right 20201 on
>> and but I could instantly feel like you
have this thing which is going to give
access to technology to more people than
anything before. uh you could use it,
you could feel it. The fact that
>> And where was that first time that you
used Google in 2001? Where were you?
>> I was I was still in PaloAlto um you
know but I was uh like working in the
semiconductor industry. It's it's
interesting to see back as we going
through this moment in AI everything is
coming back to chips uh you know which
which turns out to be the uh might be
the real driver of intelligence right
and and uh and it's not an accident that
Google works on TPUs too right so it all
comes back uh full circle but that's the
context in which I I used but you know
it's just that when I used it I
instantly felt like this is where I want
to be and spoke to some people uh ended
up at Google um and soon started working
on Chrome. Yeah.
>> And you went to Google. It was about
2003 4 2004.
>> So 2004. So you've transitioned now from
semiconductors. What semiconductor
company were you at? I actually don't know
know
>> for a long time. I was at apply uh I was
at applied materials.
>> At applied materials. So you're at a
great company applied materials. And now
you've decided to go from applied
material semiconductors to the internet
with Google. And you go that's a pretty
big leap actually from semiconductors to
the browser.
>> Look, I I wanted to be closer to um you
know when you're working in the
semiconductor industry sometimes you can
feel far removed from the people. I I I
wanted to be much closer to where
technology was impacting people and and
so I wanted to be closer to the consumer
and and that's the chance with uh uh
Google. 2004 was about the time in which
you had this the web was changing from
just content pages to real rich
applications. This was web 2.0. It was
Ajax. Uh Gmail had launched. Google
Maps, Flickr. uh you could really see
the web evolve. You were pioneering
software as a service too at the time. I
mean like look all of this was uh coming
together and
>> we were 5 years into Salesforce at
>> actually we're going public and Google
was going public in 2004. Now actually
you mentioned it Google and Salesforce
both went public that year 2004.
>> That's right. I went back and looked our
first partnership I wasn't involved
between Google and Salesforce was 2007. Yeah,
Yeah,
>> that was the first contract I
>> That's not the first partnership. The
first partnership was
I was presenting, okay, ahead of our
IPOs and Larry and Sergey were in the
front row and I was presenting on our
product strategy, but I also presented
on our 111 model.
>> Yeah. Which
>> which is the 1% equity, 1% profit, 1%
time. And Larry and Sergey came up to me
afterwards and they said, "You know
what? We're going to do that, too. and
we're going to create google.org and
we're going to do the 1% also and I want
to thank them for that and thank you
know thank you and have thank Google for that
that
>> because it created a huge foundation
with a huge amount of good
>> and that was the very first time I had
met Larry and Sergey and it was it was
an it was an incredible moment so and it
just at that moment you were kind of
coincidentally joining Google.
>> That's right. And
>> so was it before the IPO or after? Uh
just I think I joined and the IPO
happened like three weeks later.
>> Fantastic. So they join you joined the
company is going public.
>> That's right.
>> Now is it at that point now who was CEO
at that point? Was it Eric or Larry? >> Eric.
>> Eric.
>> Eric. And is that when you said to Eric
I'm going to take your job, Eric.
thing I did recall it was in 2004.
Around 2006 is when uh you know thing
which Eric I I still remember that me
and a few others we wanted to build a
browser and Eric had gone through the
browser wars before. Uh you know was
super familiar with it. Uh I remember
vividly Eric telling us are you crazy
you know what it takes to build a
browser? We're not building a browser.
We still did it anyway, but uh you know,
but he was super generous and uh once we
we kind of bootstrapped a browser, a
small team, and then we demoed it to him
and Larry Sergey and once he saw how
good it was, he became one of the
biggest supporters of it. Uh but that's
how uh Eric and I interacted. Yeah.
>> All right. Well, now you're squarely at
Google and it's a storied career for the
next 21 years from starting on this kind
of incredible team that built the
marquee browser Chrome all the way to
today as the CEO. Reflecting on that,
you know, two decades, what what what is
your thought across this arc from South
India now to the this leadership journey
at at Google?
>> Look, I um I think you know technology
is one of the biggest enablers we know,
right? uh you know it drives innovation
at a fundamental level uh if anything
that journey is you know accelerating
right I think we are living in the
middle of it sometimes we may not fully
feel it uh but the pace at which it's
evolving and and I feel and I'm sure
Mark feels that way uh you know our job
is to be good stewards of this
technology bring it in a way that really
benefits society at scale right and and
so this journey to harness technology in
a way that positively impacts humanity.
Uh I think I think that's that's what we
need to do. We obviously do it in the
context of building companies but
companies with a purpose, companies
which give back. I think both Salesforce
and Google share that deeply and you
inspired the Google journey there. I
think there is no better technology to
do that than AI, right? and and one of
the first things uh you know when I
became CEO was to we had gone through a
decade of being a mobile first company
and you know I wanted to drive the shift
uh to being an AI first company so
that's what we did in 2017
uh uh you know in fact in 2017 at Google
IO we spoke about this concept of AI
first data centers and you know we
announced our first generation of TPUs
in 2017
and And so but it's been a journey. I
think in many ways Larry Sergey were
visionary around always understanding
the true potential for AI. I was
fortunate to go through maybe four
distinct moments which kind of like
really brought it all together for me.
In 2010, I went with uh uh with the with
Larry to the DARPA Grand Challenge where
they were testing autonomous cars and
you know, we saw uh this car the
Sebastian's uh team uh which won the
DARPA challenge. So, you kind of saw the
progress that's possible. uh Jeff Dean
along well Jeff Hinton and team had come
to Google and so Jeff Dean demonstrated
Google brain in 2012 the ability for
Google brain to recognize cats uh using
a neural network that was 2012 I met
Disen team in 2014
and then in 2016 was the alpha go moment
right so seeing all this you know it was
fortunate to be at that that kind of a
vantage point which is why in 2017 I
said the company has to be really
focused on it was obvious to me this was
going to be the decade of AI uh and so
that was the journey uh since then okay
so now let's go back about 3 years when
we started to have some very interesting conversations
