2. Thomas Kurian, Google

Alphabet’s Google is making good on its intent to ramp up more quickly in artificial intelligence.

Alphabet execs said to look for more AI focus from Google. They said that without explicitly referring to competitor Microsoft, which continues to invest billions of dollars in OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But the industry consensus is that Google has fallen woefully behind in the AI arms race.

Now the company is trying to make up for that by investing almost $400 million into AI startup Anthropic. (Consider, though, that Microsoft has funneled more than $10 billion into Chat GPT.)

“AI has evolved from academic research to become one of the biggest drivers of technological change, creating new opportunities for growth and improved services across all industries,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “Google Cloud is providing open infrastructure for the next generation of AI startups, and our partnership with Anthropic is a great example of how we’re helping users and businesses tap into the power of reliable and responsible AI.”

Read more here from our cloud roundup.