Google's Pichai says to back new tech before the business is clear

Sundar Pichai, who runs Google, said on the podcast Decoder that companies should back promising technology before a big business is obvious. The episode was posted May 27, 2025. Host Nilay Patel pressed him on whether Google's huge AI spending can pay off.

This matters to anyone who uses Google's products, since it shapes what the company builds and what it may charge for. Pichai said AI will be useful enough as an assistant that people will pay for it. He said Google is introducing subscription plans.

Patel said a product like Notebook LM won't repay the cost of Google's data centers, which are buildings full of computers. Pichai pointed to Gmail, which began as a side project. He also pointed to Google Cloud, which he said brings in tens of billions of dollars in revenue today. He said people often make a mistake in fast-moving times. In his words, they "think about what is that next big business". He said they should build something people love and let the next step follow. That part starts at 8:41.

The moment is back in the news because of a story from Outlook India, published Oct. 26. It reports that Pichai says Google is putting computing power toward advanced AI research ahead of some immediate Google Cloud sales, as demand outpaces capacity.

Pichai said the mood around Waymo, Google's self-driving car business, was quite negative three years ago. He said Google raised its investment anyway. Google sells cloud services and is rolling out AI subscriptions, so it has a stake in the answer. He didn't give a date for when the AI spending will pay back.

Watch the 3 minutes where he makes the case.7:36