Sundar Pichai Hails US-India Tech Partnership as India Joins Pax Silica Initiative

Tech partnership between India and the United States took centre stage as Sundar Pichai highlighted the significance of deeper collaboration in artificial intelligence and supply chain security, and congratulated the countries as India is set to join the US-led Pax Silica initiative.

Speaking at a special event to mark India joining the initiative, the Google CEO described the US-India partnership as critical at a time of rapid technological transformation.

Pax Silica, the US Department of State’s flagship effort on AI and supply chain security, focuses on ensuring that supply chains are safe and secure while encouraging greater commercial partnerships across key technologies.

Pichai underscored India’s growing role in the AI ecosystem and reiterated Google’s ongoing commitments across products, infrastructure and developer support.

How is Google supporting India’s AI trajectory with full stack commitment?

"I believe India is going to have an extraordinary trajectory with AI and we are supporting it with a full stack commitment, including products, scaling and infrastructure,” he said.

“We are working on building AI products and solutions for Indian consumers and businesses to empower India's incredible developer community, we've already contributed 22 Gemma models to AI coach, and we are working closely with the government to bring AI applications with real world impact be through delivering timely monsoon forecast to farmers, helping healthcare workers screen for diseases like diabetic retinopathy or making information and services accessible in more languages, our current extends to reimagining the products, people use every day," he added.

Highlighting Google’s expanding partnerships in India, Pichai noted the aim is to extend the benefits of AI to both people and businesses.

"Globally, our scam detection features with circle to search and lens are used in India more than anywhere else. The Gemini app is growing rapidly across the world, and it's available in 10 languages spoken in India. And YouTube supports a vibrant ecosystem of Indian content creators sharing music, arts and culture with the world,” he said.

“Second skilling, through the AI skill house, we are working to equip 10 million future Indian leaders with the tools to drive global progress. We are also partnering with Wadhwani AI to reach students and early career professionals with a Google AI certificate, which we announced earlier this week,” he added.

How will Google’s $15 billion AI infrastructure investment and Vizag AI hub boost India’s AI growth?

“Third, infrastructure. Last year, we announced a $15 billion investment in Indian infrastructure with the AI hub in Vizag at the center. This hub will house gigawatt scale compute, when finished, it will bring jobs and the benefits of cutting edge AI to people and businesses across India," the Google CEO said.

He further emphasised the strategic importance of stable and trusted supply chains in advancing digital infrastructure and trade connectivity.

"We recently announced the India America connect initiative, which will deliver new subsea cable routes to connect the US India and multiple locations across the southern hemisphere, combined with our existing cable systems, this initiative will significantly expand the digital trade routes and serve as a literal bridge between our two countries,” he said.

“None of this would be possible without stable supply chains built on a foundation of shared trust products, subsea cables, AI hubs or are all dependent on a complex flow of goods and components across borders. Pax silica focuses on making sure that the supply chains are safe and secure and encourages greater commercial partnerships across key technologies," he added.

Shashi Tharoor on Friday, praised the ongoing AI Impact Summit, noting that the first couple of days had gone "extremely well" despite minor issues.

He said that the attendance of presidents, prime ministers and world leaders had sent a strong message about the desire for a more integrated global approach to artificial intelligence development.

While acknowledging minor operational issues, Tharoor remarked that “some glitches” can occur at any “large event”, adding that the overall proceedings of the summit had been highly encouraging.

(With inputs from ANI)