Google Cloud has announced that it is making a major change in its Artificial Intelligence (AI) operations in India. Indian companies are already using Gemini and other Google AI services through the cloud, in which their data remains within India. Changes are taking place in where Google’s latest AI models will run?
What does the Chief Executive of Google Cloud say?
In an interview with The Economic Times, Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian said that the company is now deploying its latest AI models on infrastructure in India, which will allow companies to keep both their data and AI processing within the country. The move points to a sea change taking place in global cloud computing, where the location of AI infrastructure is becoming as important as the AI models themselves. Google The announcement shows that the company is planting its AI flag in India, it is looking at India not just as a market but as a strategic AI hub.
Access to local hosting
In an interview given to ET during his visit to India, Kurien said that the company is bringing its latest AI facilities so that services can be provided from the machines present in India. Till now, an Indian company could use Gemini through Google Cloud, but the actual AI inference process was not always required to be done within India. In many cases, the request could have been processed in another Google Cloud region, depending on how the service is deployed and where the model is available. The customer was in India, but the model was not necessarily running there.
Kurien’s announcement changes this equation. Google is implementing its platform, Gemini Enterprise, on infrastructure in India to build its latest Gemini models and AI agents. As he said, the aim is to enable local processing with models and data hosted in India. Basically, this means that an Indian bank, telecom operator, healthcare provider or government department can not only keep its data in India as is already the case but can also get AI requests processed in India instead of sending them abroad.
Why is Google doing this now?
The main reason for this is the increasing importance of digital sovereignty. Governments around the world are now becoming more sensitive about where data is stored and where AI systems process the information. Companies in the regulated sector want to ensure that sensitive data never travels beyond the country’s borders and that AI requests are not processed outside the country. This debate intensified when countries started considering AI infrastructure as a strategic asset, just like telecommunication networks or energy infrastructure.
Kurian said that Google is increasing its commitment towards digital sovereignty. He described this new step as part of the company’s strict ‘in-country machine learning process’ commitment that it had made to India, and said that they are fulfilling it through their new model.
Google competes with these companies
Google is not the only cloud provider to offer local data residency in India. Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Oracle Cloud all operate cloud regions in India that allow enterprises to store and process data locally. They also provide AI services through their respective platforms. Microsoft provides AI services through Azure AI and Azure OpenAI. AWS offers the Foundation model through Amazon Bedrock. Oracle has provided generative AI services through its Indian cloud regions.
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