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.”
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
TikTok abounds with viral videos accusing prestigious brands of secretly manufacturing luxury goods in China so they can be sold at cut prices. However, while these “revelations” are spurious, behind them lurks a well-oiled machine for selling counterfeit goods that is making the most of the confusion surrounding trade tariffs. Chinese content creators who portray themselves as workers or subcontractors in the luxury goods business claim that Beijing has lifted confidentiality clauses on local subcontractors as a way to respond to the huge hike in customs duties imposed on China by US President Donald Trump. They say this Chinese decision, of which Agence
RSS