Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google, unveiled the Google for India Digitization Fund through which the company will be making investments in the country.
“We’ll do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy,” he said via video conference at the company’s annual event focused on India.
Pichai revealed the investment plan during a virtual meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Google will apply the group’s artificial technology to such fields as medicine, education and agriculture. The initiative seeks to boost internet access in India, with plans to develop a search engine in Hindi and over20 other Indian languages. These efforts will realize the vision of a digital India, said Pichai, who was born and raised in the country.
“Building products for India first has helped us build better products for users everywhere,” Pichai said Monday at the Google for India event, referring to its GPay contactless payment system as an example.
Google is not alone in chasing after the world’s second-most populated country. Many U.S. tech groups have turned to India after facing restrictions and technological frictions in China. Amazon.com has pledged to invest $1 billion in Indian small-to-midsize enterprises through 2025, while Facebook is injecting $5.7 billion into Jio Platforms, the telecommunications arm of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries. Besides the massive upside opportunities in the country, the timing seems to be opportune for U.S.businesses to move into India since the nation has moved to shut out China from its economy.
“We’ll do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy,” he said via video conference at the company’s annual event focused on India.
Investments will focus on four areas:
- First, enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it’s Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other
- Second, building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs
- Third, empowering businesses as they continue to embark on their digital transformation
- Fourth, leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education and agriculture
India is a key overseas market for Google, where a range of its products and services, including Search, YouTube and Android, have made inroads with much of the entire online population. More than 500 million people in India are online today and over 450 million smartphones are in active use in the country.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
