Google CEO Sundar Pichai talks to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on company's all-new AI hub in India, calls it 'largest ever ...'

is setting up a $15 billion artificial intelligence (AI) facility in Visakhapatnam. During a recent conversation with at Dreamforce, the tech giant’s CEO, , confirmed that once finished, this facility, which is the company’s “largest ever AI investment outside the US,” will be its first AI hub in India. The investment will span five years (2026-2030) and combine gigawatt-scale data centre operations, new energy sources, and an expanded fibre-optic network, Google announced earlier. “We announced our largest ever AI investment outside the US, a $15 billion one gigawatt plus data centre, 80% powered by clean energy with subsea cables going in," Pichai said. He emphasised that such an investment could completely transform the region.

“All of us are in this world of trying to give people access to technology, and you see that step change that comes with it. And with AI, we have a chance to do a step even more,” Pichai added.




The hub is expected to accelerate the adoption of AI across industries. Pichai also recalled his childhood train trips through South India and talked about the 'beautiful coast town' of Vizag where Google is making this investment.

What Sundar Pichai said about OpenAI’s position in the AI race

When asked how Google felt about OpenAI shaking up the AI landscape at a time when the search giant was leading the field, Pichai said the company had already made notable progress on AI products, including an internal chatbot.

He said, “But you're right, credit to OpenAI, they put it out first. We knew in a different world, we would've probably launched our chatbot maybe a few months down the line. We hadn't quite gotten it to a level where you could put it out and people would've been OK with Google putting out that product. It still had a lot of issues at that time.”

Pichai added that Google had already been making significant investments in AI, across research, chip production, and infrastructure, and was in a strong position when ChatGPT was introduced.

However, he said Google initially chose not to release a chatbot right after ChatGPT’s launch, citing higher reputational risks compared to OpenAI. The company eventually introduced its own chatbot in March 2023, first called Bard and later renamed Gemini.

“We kick-started Gemini. We brought and Google DeepMind together, and we've been rapidly iterating. Since then, we have Gemini 2.5 outside, and we are working on Gemini 3.0, which we will release this year. The progress has been extraordinary. And I think the progress in 2026 is going to be even more exciting than 2025, so I couldn't be more excited,” Pichai noted.