How Sundar Pichai responded to 'Google's lost... it's over. You're the wrong guy to lead Google' remark

In a candid exchange during a recent podcast with YouTuber and researcher Lex Fridman, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai addressed growing public criticism about Google's perceived loss of momentum in the AI race, saying he remains confident in the company’s long-term vision and leadership.

Responding to a pointed comment —“Google's lost... it's over. You're the wrong guy to lead Google” — Pichai reflected on the strategic decisions he has made as CEO, emphasising the company’s commitment to becoming “AI-first” and responsibly building artificial general intelligence (AGI).

“Obviously, the main bet as a CEO I made was to make sure the company was approaching everything in an AI-first way,” Pichai said. “We’ve made sure we put out products that are useful to people. I had a good sense of what we were building internally even during the turbulence last year.”

Pichai highlighted several foundational moves made under his leadership, including the merger of Google Brain and DeepMind into the unified Google DeepMind team, a decision he believes has strengthened the company’s AI research capabilities. He also referenced Google’s early investment in Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) over a decade ago, which he said has been critical in scaling up and training large AI models like Gemini.

In his characteristic calm tone, Pichai described his approach to leadership amid criticism. “I am good at tuning out the noise and separating signal from noise,” he remarked, drawing an analogy to scuba diving. “Sometimes, you jump in the ocean and it’s choppy. But you go just a foot below, and it’s the calmest thing in the universe.”

He compared running Google to managing an elite football club like Barcelona or Real Madrid — where one rough season does not negate the strength of the squad or the long-term strategy. “You watch the signals, and while some good feedback may come from the outside, internally you’re making a set of consequential decisions. Many may feel inconsequential at the time, but they add up.”

Despite challenges, Pichai believes Google is well-positioned in the AI landscape. “We had to ramp up the TPUs, train Gemini, and scale our compute. To me, it seemed like the biggest opportunity space of the next decade — bigger than what we’ve seen before,” he said. “We’re set up better than most companies in the world.”

The remarks come at a time when tech giants are fiercely competing for AI dominance, and public perception often shifts quickly based on product rollouts and visible innovation. For Pichai, however, the focus remains steady: “Just keep things moving. We’ve set up the right teams, the right leaders, and we have world-class researchers.”