On the fourth day of the AI Impact Summit 2026, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, addressed the impact of AI, not only in India but worldwide. AI represents a transformative moment in technology, comparable to the biggest shifts in computing history, he stated.
“No technology has me dreaming bigger than AI. It is the biggest platform shift of our lifetimes,” he said, adding that AI could help emerging economies to leap ahead and create legacy infrastructure gaps via outcomes that are not automatic and further require responsible deployment.
Vizag to become Google’s full-stack AI hub
Highlighting India’s rising importance in the global AI ecosystem, Pichai announced that Google will be establishing a full-stack AI hub in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), which will be a part of its USD 15 billion investment in India's infrastructure.
The upcoming Google AI hub at Vizag will feature the following:
- Large-scale digital infrastructure
- Gigawatt-scale compute capacity
- A new international subsea cable gateway
- Job creation and AI deployment across sectors
During his speech, Pichai recalled his student-time memories of travelling to Vizag as a “quiet coastal city brimming with potential", stating how it has transformed into a global AI centre.
AI is driving scientific breakthroughs
- Explaining the optimism around artificial intelligence, Pichai cited breakthroughs in scientific research, particularly the work of Demis Hassabis and his team at Google DeepMind.
- He further highlighted AlphaFold, an AI system which is capable of solving the decades-old challenge of predicting protein structures.
- In his speech, Pichai said, “This breakthrough, which won a Nobel Prize, compressed decades of research into a database that is now open to the world.”
- Today, over three million researchers across 190 countries are using the AlphaFold database to help accelerate malaria vaccine research, fight antibiotic resistance, and drive medical innovation.
AI across the scientific ecosystem
Pichai said that AI is now being used across the scientific stack, from cataloguing DNA disease markers to building AI agents that assist researchers in experimentation and analysis. He emphasised that bold thinking is required not just in advanced economies but also in regions that have historically lacked access to cutting-edge technology.
Responsible and inclusive AI development
While growing AI and its gigantic potential to improve billions of lives, Pichai stressed the importance of responsible development in the stream.
Pichai said that AI can drive innovation, expand economic opportunities in the country and address global challenges- but only if there is a thoughtful and equitable deployment.
Overall, with the USD 15 billion investment from Google in India, Vizag is emerging as a full-scale AI infrastructure hub. India’s role in further shaping the global AI future appears to deepen further for the technology as well as the Indian market.
Inputs from ANI
