Google CEO Sundar Pichai says he is “very excited” to supply OpenAI, the search giant’s largest competitor in AI, with cloud computing resources to train and serve the company’s AI models as part of a recently struck partnership.
“With respect to OpenAI, look, we are very excited to be partnering with them on Google Cloud,” said Pichai on Google’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. “Google Cloud is an open platform, and we have a strong history of supporting great companies, startups, AI labs, etc. So super excited about our partnership there on the cloud side, and we look forward to investing more in that relationship and growing that.”
The comment came shortly after analysts peppered Pichai and other Google executives with questions about how AI would affect its core search business and why Google is spending an extra $10 billion on capital expenditures this year to catch up in the AI race. Roughly two and a half years since the launch of ChatGPT, Google has now shifted its focus squarely on developing leading AI models and products to compete with OpenAI.
ChatGPT is a major threat to Google Search, but the OpenAI deal marks a massive new customer for Google Cloud. It’s a treacherous relationship for Google to navigate; OpenAI may ultimately use Google’s cloud infrastructure and chips to upend the company’s core Search product.
