Two months after Google CEO Sundar Pichai said AI investment boom has ‘elements of irrationality’, he defends it; says: I think the investment makes sense given…

Back in November, Alphabet and Google parent company’s CEO Sundar Pichai openly flagged “elements of irrationality” in the AI investment boom—drawing parallels to the dot-com era and warning that no company, including Google, would be immune if the bubble burst. It was a rare moment of candour from a Big Tech CEO. Two months on, with Alphabet having just committed up to $185 billion in capex for 2026—nearly double what analysts had pencilled in—he’s back on the front foot, making the case for why the numbers make sense. Speaking on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in Delhi, Pichai didn’t shy away from the scale of it. “This is the Industrial Revolution, but 10 times faster. In fact, larger,” he told moderator Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog. “I think the investment makes sense given the progress in the technology we are seeing and the opportunities we see on top of it.”