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Google CEO interview; Sarvam's launch day
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Before his India visit, Google CEO Sundar Pichai spoke to ET about Alphabet's AI investments, Gemini plans and others. This and more in today's ETtech Top 5.
Also in the letter:
■ Infy Investor Day fails to lift shares
■ Anthropic's smarter Sonnet
■ Meta CEO to face trial
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai began his India visit with a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, where the two discussed the company’s work with Indian professionals and students.
Pichai later attended the India AI Impact Summit, joining global policymakers and technology leaders. “Nice to be back,” he wrote on X.
Before arriving, Pichai spoke to ET virtually about Alphabet's rising AI investments, the company’s plans for Gemini, and more.
Excerpts:
Alphabet at the AI Summit: Pichai said AI is advancing rapidly, and the Delhi summit represents an important moment for global collaboration, especially given India's dynamic growth and vast AI potential. “The fact that it's happening in India makes it even more meaningful. The scale of the AI opportunity [in India] is immense.”
On AI for coding: Google's coding workflow is now deeply AI-assisted, with tools embedded in engineers' IDEs (Integrated Development Environment), which helps boost productivity through code suggestions and task automation.
On competition with ChatGPT: “Most of the foundational breakthroughs in AI were developed at Google and Alphabet. In consumer tech, it's common for products to appear suddenly from the outside. But because we had invested deeply, we had the capacity to respond,” Pichai added.
Read the full Q&A here.
Subsea cables announcement: Meanwhile, Google announced that it will build three new subsea cables linking India with Singapore, South Africa and Australia, along with four fibre-optic routes to strengthen connections between the US, India and parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
Demis Hassabis, CEO, Google DeepMind
Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis warned that increasingly powerful AI systems have serious biosecurity and cybersecurity risks, even as he expressed confidence in the technology’s long-term benefits.
He added that AI could reach artificial general intelligence within five to eight years.
Bad actors: Hassabis said that as AI systems become more powerful, there is growing concern around misuse by "bad actors." These could include “individuals, groups, or even nation-states who might repurpose these dual-use systems for harmful ends”.
Cautious optimism: “My message about AI is that of cautious optimism. We're on the cusp of a transformation that will deliver benefits. But I would also add a note of caution. We'll solve technical risks if we work on it, but we have to deal with them on a global scale,” he said.
Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence startup Sarvam has unveiled two new large language models, Sarvam-30B and Sarvam-105B, as it expands into enterprise AI and advanced reasoning systems.
Inside the models:
Also Read: Qualcomm to invest $150 million in startups in India
What else? Pricing details were not disclosed. The startup said both models are designed for enterprise deployments, including coding support, research, analytics, and real-time AI agents.
Microsoft's India investment: Microsoft said it is on track to invest $50 billion by the end of the decade to expand AI access across the Global South, warning that adoption in advanced economies continues to run about twice as high.
Where the money goes:
Microsoft added that it spent more than $8 billion on data centre infrastructure serving Global South markets in the last financial year, including in India, Mexico, and parts of Africa, South America, South-East Asia and the Middle East.
Also Read: Galgotias University's Chinese RoboDog ‘Orion’ sparks massive backlash at Delhi AI summit, ordered to vacate stall
Salil Parekh,CEO, Infosys
IT major Infosys unveiled an ambitious AI roadmap targeting a $300-400 billion market by 2030. Still, its shares fell over 3% to Rs 1,346 on the NSE, signalling investor caution about near-term earnings impact.
What's happening? The Bengaluru-based IT giant's AI Investor Day sought to bolster investor confidence in its long-term strategy. Still, it failed to halt the sell-off in Indian IT stocks amid concerns about AI-driven disruption.
Brokerages remain upbeat, with price targets ranging from Rs 1,760 to Rs 2,050, implying potential gains of up to 52% from current levels.
Investor day: Infosys pitched AI as a long-term growth driver, not a threat.
On Wednesday, Infosys’ shares closed 1.3% down at Rs 1373.5 on the BSE.
Source: Google Finance
Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO, Ola Electric
Shares of Ola Electric jumped up to 5% to Rs 29.35 on the BSE on Wednesday, recovering after sliding 11% over the previous four sessions.
Why the rebound? The Bombay High Court stayed the arrest warrant issued by the District Consumer Commission against CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, easing immediate legal concerns.
Ola Electric has faced recent pressure due to multiple challenges. Citi downgraded the stock from “Buy” to “Sell” and cut its target from Rs 55 to Rs 27, a 51% reduction, citing slow EV adoption in India’s two-wheeler segment, lost market share, service issues, strong competition, and negative customer perception.
The company's shares closed up 0.8% on the BSE at Rs 28.2 on Wednesday.
Source: Google Finance
Dario Modei, CEO, Anthropic
Anthropic has released Claude Sonnet 4.6, its most advanced Sonnet model yet, offering near-Opus-level intelligence at a lower cost.
Sonnet is designed for everyday coding and enterprise tasks, while Opus handles more complex reasoning and analytical work.
More details:
The launch follows Claude Sonnet 4.5, introduced in September last year, which improved coding, reasoning, and maths performance. The announcement comes alongside OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT 5.3-Codex, its developer-focused AI for coding.
Also Read: AI could either narrow or dangerously widen the economic divide: Microsoft's Brad Smith
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta
Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify at a crucial social media addiction trial, summoned by lawyers representing a plaintiff who alleges Instagram and other platforms were designed to deliberately addict young users.
Driving the news: Zuckerberg, who runs Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is the most anticipated witness in the trial, the first in a series of cases that could set legal precedent for thousands of lawsuits filed by American families against major social media platforms.
Case in point: The case, along with two similar trials scheduled for later this year, aims to establish a standard for resolving thousands of lawsuits that blame social media for fueling an epidemic of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide among young people.
Also in the letter:
■ Infy Investor Day fails to lift shares
■ Anthropic's smarter Sonnet
■ Meta CEO to face trial
Google wants to partner India in its AI trajectory: Google CEO Sundar Pichai
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai began his India visit with a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, where the two discussed the company’s work with Indian professionals and students.
Pichai later attended the India AI Impact Summit, joining global policymakers and technology leaders. “Nice to be back,” he wrote on X.
Before arriving, Pichai spoke to ET virtually about Alphabet's rising AI investments, the company’s plans for Gemini, and more.
Excerpts:
Alphabet at the AI Summit: Pichai said AI is advancing rapidly, and the Delhi summit represents an important moment for global collaboration, especially given India's dynamic growth and vast AI potential. “The fact that it's happening in India makes it even more meaningful. The scale of the AI opportunity [in India] is immense.”
On AI for coding: Google's coding workflow is now deeply AI-assisted, with tools embedded in engineers' IDEs (Integrated Development Environment), which helps boost productivity through code suggestions and task automation.
On competition with ChatGPT: “Most of the foundational breakthroughs in AI were developed at Google and Alphabet. In consumer tech, it's common for products to appear suddenly from the outside. But because we had invested deeply, we had the capacity to respond,” Pichai added.
Read the full Q&A here.
Subsea cables announcement: Meanwhile, Google announced that it will build three new subsea cables linking India with Singapore, South Africa and Australia, along with four fibre-optic routes to strengthen connections between the US, India and parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
- This includes a direct link from Visakhapatnam to South Africa and another to Singapore.
- The move is part of the "America-India Connect" project with regional partners, which will create a new international subsea gateway in Visakhapatnam, Google said.
Potential misuse of AI by 'bad actors' a worry, says Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis
Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis warned that increasingly powerful AI systems have serious biosecurity and cybersecurity risks, even as he expressed confidence in the technology’s long-term benefits.
He added that AI could reach artificial general intelligence within five to eight years.
Bad actors: Hassabis said that as AI systems become more powerful, there is growing concern around misuse by "bad actors." These could include “individuals, groups, or even nation-states who might repurpose these dual-use systems for harmful ends”.
Cautious optimism: “My message about AI is that of cautious optimism. We're on the cusp of a transformation that will deliver benefits. But I would also add a note of caution. We'll solve technical risks if we work on it, but we have to deal with them on a global scale,” he said.
Sarvam unveils two new large language models focused on real-time use, advanced reasoning
Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence startup Sarvam has unveiled two new large language models, Sarvam-30B and Sarvam-105B, as it expands into enterprise AI and advanced reasoning systems.
Inside the models:
- Sarvam-30B is built for fast, real-time applications. The company says it delivers efficient responses with fewer tokens, helping reduce inference costs and making it well-suited for latency-sensitive use cases.
- Sarvam-105B targets heavier reasoning workloads and complex problem-solving. Sarvam claims performance levels comparable with leading open-and closed-source models.
Also Read: Qualcomm to invest $150 million in startups in India
What else? Pricing details were not disclosed. The startup said both models are designed for enterprise deployments, including coding support, research, analytics, and real-time AI agents.
Microsoft's India investment: Microsoft said it is on track to invest $50 billion by the end of the decade to expand AI access across the Global South, warning that adoption in advanced economies continues to run about twice as high.
Where the money goes:
- AI infrastructure and data centres
- Skills and workforce training
- Multilingual AI development
- Local innovation ecosystems
- Tools to track AI adoption and impact
Microsoft added that it spent more than $8 billion on data centre infrastructure serving Global South markets in the last financial year, including in India, Mexico, and parts of Africa, South America, South-East Asia and the Middle East.
Also Read: Galgotias University's Chinese RoboDog ‘Orion’ sparks massive backlash at Delhi AI summit, ordered to vacate stall
Infosys' $400 billion AI dream fails to arrest stock slide, but target prices go up to Rs 2,050
IT major Infosys unveiled an ambitious AI roadmap targeting a $300-400 billion market by 2030. Still, its shares fell over 3% to Rs 1,346 on the NSE, signalling investor caution about near-term earnings impact.
What's happening? The Bengaluru-based IT giant's AI Investor Day sought to bolster investor confidence in its long-term strategy. Still, it failed to halt the sell-off in Indian IT stocks amid concerns about AI-driven disruption.
Brokerages remain upbeat, with price targets ranging from Rs 1,760 to Rs 2,050, implying potential gains of up to 52% from current levels.
Investor day: Infosys pitched AI as a long-term growth driver, not a threat.
- Unlike previous tech cycles, AI adoption requires modernising legacy systems, which boosts demand for services, it said.
- The company flagged six key areas: AI Strategy and Engineering, Data for AI, Process AI, Agentic Legacy Modernisation, Physical AI, and AI Trust.
On Wednesday, Infosys’ shares closed 1.3% down at Rs 1373.5 on the BSE.
Ola Electric stock rebounds after continued fall
Shares of Ola Electric jumped up to 5% to Rs 29.35 on the BSE on Wednesday, recovering after sliding 11% over the previous four sessions.
Why the rebound? The Bombay High Court stayed the arrest warrant issued by the District Consumer Commission against CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, easing immediate legal concerns.
Ola Electric has faced recent pressure due to multiple challenges. Citi downgraded the stock from “Buy” to “Sell” and cut its target from Rs 55 to Rs 27, a 51% reduction, citing slow EV adoption in India’s two-wheeler segment, lost market share, service issues, strong competition, and negative customer perception.
The company's shares closed up 0.8% on the BSE at Rs 28.2 on Wednesday.
Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.6
Anthropic has released Claude Sonnet 4.6, its most advanced Sonnet model yet, offering near-Opus-level intelligence at a lower cost.
Sonnet is designed for everyday coding and enterprise tasks, while Opus handles more complex reasoning and analytical work.
More details:
- The update makes Sonnet faster and more cost-effective for coding, high-volume tasks, and interactive use.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 is now available across all Claude plans, including Claude Cowork, Claude Code, the API, and major cloud platforms.
The launch follows Claude Sonnet 4.5, introduced in September last year, which improved coding, reasoning, and maths performance. The announcement comes alongside OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT 5.3-Codex, its developer-focused AI for coding.
Also Read: AI could either narrow or dangerously widen the economic divide: Microsoft's Brad Smith
Mark Zuckerberg to testify in landmark social media addiction trial
Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify at a crucial social media addiction trial, summoned by lawyers representing a plaintiff who alleges Instagram and other platforms were designed to deliberately addict young users.
Driving the news: Zuckerberg, who runs Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is the most anticipated witness in the trial, the first in a series of cases that could set legal precedent for thousands of lawsuits filed by American families against major social media platforms.
Case in point: The case, along with two similar trials scheduled for later this year, aims to establish a standard for resolving thousands of lawsuits that blame social media for fueling an epidemic of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide among young people.
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I agree to receive newsletters and marketing communications via e-mail