Google’s Sundar Pichai Thrilled About OpenAI Cloud Partnership
▼ Summary
– Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressed excitement about partnering with OpenAI to supply cloud computing resources, despite OpenAI being a major competitor in AI.
– Google Cloud’s revenue surged to $13.6 billion in Q2 2025, driven partly by AI companies like OpenAI using its services.
– OpenAI added Google Cloud as a supplier alongside Microsoft and Oracle, seeking additional computational power for its AI models.
– Google’s AI products, like Gemini and AI Overviews, have significant user bases, but their impact on Google Search’s business remains unclear.
– The partnership with OpenAI is risky for Google, as OpenAI could use Google’s infrastructure to challenge its core Search product.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has expressed enthusiasm about the company’s new cloud computing partnership with OpenAI, despite the latter being one of Google’s biggest competitors in artificial intelligence. The collaboration, which involves providing infrastructure for OpenAI’s AI models, highlights the complex dynamics between tech giants in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
During Google’s recent earnings call, Pichai emphasized the company’s commitment to supporting leading AI labs through Google Cloud, calling it an “open platform” with a track record of working with innovative organizations. “We’re super excited about our partnership with OpenAI on the cloud side and look forward to growing that relationship,” he stated. The announcement comes as Google ramps up investments in AI, allocating an additional $10 billion this year to stay competitive.
The deal presents an intriguing paradox. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT poses a direct challenge to Google Search, its reliance on Google’s cloud infrastructure could strengthen Google Cloud’s position in the market. OpenAI recently added Google to its list of cloud providers, alongside Microsoft and Oracle, as it seeks additional computational power to meet growing demand.
Google Cloud’s revenue surged to $13.6 billion in Q2 2025, up significantly from $10.3 billion the previous year. A substantial portion of this growth stems from partnerships with AI-focused companies, including Anthropic, Safe Superintelligence, and now OpenAI. Pichai credited Google’s success in securing these deals to its robust supply of Nvidia GPUs and proprietary TPU chips, which are critical for training advanced AI models.
For OpenAI, the partnership offers a solution to its ongoing GPU shortage, which has strained its relationship with primary backer Microsoft. Meanwhile, Google continues to expand its AI product offerings, with Gemini attracting 450 million monthly users and AI Overviews reaching 2 billion. However, the long-term impact on Google’s core search business remains uncertain.
The arrangement echoes Google’s early days when it powered Yahoo’s search before eventually surpassing it. Whether history repeats itself, with OpenAI leveraging Google’s infrastructure to dominate AI, is a question only time will answer. For now, Pichai’s optimism underscores the delicate balance between competition and collaboration in the tech industry.
(Source: TechCrunch)
