While many other technology giants embrace the metaverse as the next frontier of growth, Alphabet Inc chief executive officer Sundar Pichai sees Google’s future in its oldest offering: Internet search.
“I feel fortunate our mission is timeless,” Pichai said in an interview in Singapore. “There’s more need to organize information than ever before.”
Earlier this month, Google parent Alphabet briefly crossed US$2 trillion in market value thanks to sales and profit growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo: AFP
When asked where the next US$1 trillion would come from, Pichai pointed to his company’s core service.
People will ask computers more questions with voice and “multimodal experiences,” he said. “Being able to adapt to all that and evolve search will continue to be the biggest opportunity.”
Since taking over Google in 2015, Pichai has pushed the company deeper into cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), while facing an increase in regulatory scrutiny.
In the interview, Pichai ticked off Google’s key growth businesses — cloud, the YouTube video service and its app store — and said AI investments were “underlying” each of them.
The India-born CEO also said he expects that more of Google’s products would be developed and tested in Asia first, before spreading across the globe.
Not in China, though.
After icing plans to bring search to China in 2018, following an employee uproar, Google has kept most of its services out of the nation.
“I don’t see that changing,” Pichai said.
However, he does not share other Silicon Valley executives’ dim view of China’s tech advances.
Pichai acknowledged that Google is “neck to neck” with Chinese companies in AI and quantum computing, but argued that the US and China have room to collaborate in areas such as climate change and AI safety.
Some of Google’s largest peers, such as Microsoft Corp and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc, have pitched their futures around the virtual worlds of the metaverse.
Google has taken several approaches at virtual and augmented reality products, with limited success.
Years ago, its first attempt, the Google Glass headgear, flopped.
Google recently placed these efforts in a new division reporting to Pichai, although he did not provide specifics about the strategy.
“I’ve always been excited about the future of immersive computing,” he said. “This doesn’t belong to any company. This is the evolution of the Internet.”
Promoters of the metaverse often talk about the potential to build in new technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Aside from some cloud partnerships, Google has largely steered clear of this part of the industry.
Pichai said he does not own any cryptocurrency.
“I wish I did,” he said. “I’ve dabbled in it, you know, in and out.”
CONSIDERATIONS: The NSTC instructed the park to assist laid-off workers and urge companies to use furlough programs to ease the effects of falling demand Firms in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), which houses major tech companies, reported laying off 496 employees last month amid weakened global demand, Hsinchu Science Park Bureau director-general Wayne Wang (王永壯) said yesterday. Wang told a news conference that 48 companies in the science park laid off employees last month, including one hard disk supplier which let go 241 employees as part of a plant closure due to falling demand. Other companies reported sporadic layoffs as they adjusted to weakening demand, he said. Wang made the remarks after local media reported the layoffs over the weekend. Although the global economy is struggling with high
DEJA VU: Echoing the probe into real-estate giant Evergrande Group, the bank is under Beijing police scrutiny after last week, telling investors it is ‘severely insolvent’ Chinese authorities said they recently opened criminal investigations into Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co’s (中植企業) money management business, days after the embattled shadow banking giant revealed a shortfall of US$36.4 billion in its balance sheet. Police in Beijing said in a statement on WeChat that they took “criminal mandatory measures” against multiple suspects, identifying one by their last name, Xie (解). They urged investors to report cases or provide leads to the authorities, including filing complaints online. Xie Zhikun (解直錕), the group’s founder, died in 2021, but several of his relatives are executives at the company. The statement did not elaborate on what
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck have promised to solve investment subsidy issues for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Intel Corp, despite the country’s budget woes. Uncertainty over the funding to TSMC and Intel has arisen after a ruling by the German Federal Constitutional Court, which cast doubt over subsidies for construction of local semiconductor chip plants. On Nov. 15, the court ruled that the German government’s decision last year to reallocate 60 billion euros (US$65.74 billion) of unused funding from COVID-19 pandemic support measures to its Climate and Transformation Fund
NEW TREAD: The Taiwanese shoe brand paired with TSMC to turn silicon waste into a circular economy good, following its success making shoes from coffee grounds Ccilu International Inc (馳綠國際), a Taiwan-based footwear brand, has become the first company in the world to turn silicon waste from contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) into eco-friendly shoes. Last year, the global footwear industry saw the first pair of pressure-relief slippers made from recycled silicon waste by Ccilu. The brand continued to unveil follow-up collections, including sports shoes and massage slippers made from the same materials. In an interview with CNA, Ccilu CEO Wilson Hsu (許佳鳴) recalled the company’s innovation of the first pair of slippers made from silicon waste after its silicon waste treatment partner, Semisils Applied Materials
RSS