Google Cloud CEO On AI At Goldman Sachs Event: ‘We Have A 10-Year Head Start On Any Competitor’: US Pioneer Global VC DIFCHQ Singapore Swiss- Riyadh Norway Our Mind

‘Over 50 percent of all funded AI companies are our customers on Google Cloud and over 70 percent of AI unicorns use Google Cloud. In other words, those that know how to do AI, understand our differentiators,’ says Thomas Kurian.

Thomas Kurian says Google is winning the artificial intelligence arms race by having better cloud infrastructure for AI, “far fewer security issues than competitors,” and having a massive head start against the competition, which includes the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.

“As generative AI came along, we’ve evolved our infrastructure portfolio. Remember, Google has been building large scale infrastructure for AI for over 10 years,” said Google Cloud’s CEO Kurian at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology conference. “So, we have over a 10 -year head start on any competitor.”

The Mountain View, Calif.-based technology giant is the world’s third largest cloud computing company with a $32 billion run rate. Google Cloud is growing revenues faster than AWS and Microsoft, in part, thanks to new customers placing their AI bets on Google.

[Related: SADA CEO On Google’s AI ‘Distinct Advantage’ And Thomas Kurian’s Winning Strategy]

In particular, Kurian said many of the most innovative and successful AI startups are Google Cloud customers.

“Over 50 percent of all funded AI companies are our customers on Google Cloud and over 70 percent of AI unicorns use Google Cloud,” he said. “In other words, those that know how to do AI, understand our differentiators.”

Google Vs. Microsoft Vs. Amazon

The three largest cloud companies on Earth—Amazon via AWS, Microsoft and Google—are investing hundreds-of-millions of dollars into building new AI software, developer tools, and cloud infrastructure across the globe. This acceleration to drive AI innovation for businesses came after Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022. Generative AI became the industry’s most popular buzzword, although gen AI is driving real ROI for customers.

Kurian said Google has many advantages in the AI space compared to its competitors: from its history in data analysis to cybersecurity via its $5.4 billion acquisition of security star Mandiant last year.

“The data speaks for itself. We have far fewer security issues than competitors and so we start from a strong foundation,” he said. “We’ve been working at Google on AI since 2004. So, it’s our twentieth year. There’s a lot we have learned in, not just building models, but building products that are enabled by AI.”

CRN breaks down the six boldest remarks by Thomas Kurian during the Goldman Sachs conference about why Google is besting the competition in AI.

https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/google-cloud-ceo-on-ai-at-goldman-sachs-event-we-have-a-10-year-head-start-on-any-competitor-