Sundar Pichai wasn't treated like a businessman when he landed in New Delhi this week. He was received like a head of state.
TheGoogle CEOmet Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally before addressing delegates from over 110 countries at theIndia AI Impact Summit 2026.
On 19 February, he stood at Bharat Mandapam and announced that Google would pour $15 billion (£11.16 billion) into India's AI infrastructure over the next five years. 'No technology has me dreaming bigger thanAI,' Pichai told the crowd.
The Chennai-born executive has long compared AI to fire and electricity in terms of its world-changing potential. He first made that comparison back in 2018. But behind the 'prodigal son returns home' storyline sits a harder question that India's policymakers are only beginning to ask: is Google building India's digital future, or buying it?
Google'splanned AI hub in Visakhapatnamwill house gigawatt-scale compute capacity and a new international subsea cable gateway connecting India directly to the United States.
Pichai reminisced about passing through the coastal city as a student on the Coromandel Express train from Chennai to IIT Kharagpur. 'I remember it being a quiet and modest coastal city brimming with potential,' he said. Now, Google wants to turn it into a global AI node.
The company also announced a $30 million (£22.3 million) AI for Science Impact Challenge to fund researchers worldwide. Google DeepMindsigned partnershipsto bring generative AI assistants into more than 10,000 government-run Atal Tinkering Labs, reaching roughly 11 million Indian students. Another deal with textbook publisher PM Publishers will convert two million static textbooks into AI-powered interactive learning tools across 2,000 schools.
And there's more. Google Cloud will provide infrastructure for a government platform supporting 20 million public servants across 800 districts in 18 Indian languages.
Sounds like progress. But progress for whom?
PM Modi has repeatedly stated that India should rank 'among the top three AI superpowers globally, not just in the consumption of AI, but in creation.' His government has allocated approximately INR 50 billion or approximately $549 million (£408 million) to subsidise GPU procurement and build domestic compute capacity. The Budget 2026-27 expanded support for data centres and cloud infrastructure.
Source: International Business Times UK
