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Google Cloud has announced a significant shift in its artificial intelligence (AI) operations in India. Indian companies are already utilizing Gemini and other Google AI services via the cloud—with their data remaining within India—but the change concerns where Google's latest AI models will actually run.

What does the Google Cloud Chief Executive say?
In an interview with *The Economic Times*, Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian stated that the company is now deploying its latest AI models on infrastructure located within India, enabling companies to keep both their data and AI processing inside the country. This move signals a major shift in global cloud computing, where the location of AI infrastructure is becoming just as critical as the AI ​​models themselves. Google's announcement indicates that the company is establishing a strong foothold in India, viewing the country not merely as a market but as a strategic AI hub.

Speaking to ET during his visit to India, Kurian explained that the company is introducing its latest AI capabilities to deliver services using infrastructure based in India. Previously, while Indian companies could use Gemini via Google Cloud, the actual AI inference processing did not necessarily take place within India. Depending on how the service was deployed and where the model was available, requests could often be processed in a different Google Cloud region; the customer might be in India, but the model was not necessarily running there.

Kurian's announcement changes this dynamic. Google is deploying its platform—Gemini Enterprise—on infrastructure located in India to power its latest Gemini models and AI agents. As he noted, the objective is to enable local processing with both the models and data hosted within India. In essence, this means that an Indian bank, telecom operator, healthcare provider, or government department can not only keep its data within India—as is already the case—but also have AI requests processed domestically rather than sending them abroad.

Why is Google doing this now?
The primary reason is the growing importance of digital sovereignty. Governments worldwide are becoming increasingly sensitive about where data is stored and where AI systems process information. Companies in regulated sectors want to ensure that sensitive data never leaves national borders and that AI requests are not processed outside the country. This debate intensified as nations began viewing AI infrastructure as a strategic asset, much like telecommunications or energy infrastructure.

Kurian stated that Google is strengthening its commitment to digital sovereignty. He described this new move as part of the company's firm commitment to "in-country machine learning processing" in India, noting that they are fulfilling this through their new models.

Google's competition
Google is not the only cloud provider offering local data residency in India. Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Oracle Cloud all operate cloud regions in India that allow enterprises to store and process data locally. They also provide AI services through their respective platforms. Microsoft offers AI services via Azure AI and Azure OpenAI. AWS offers foundation models through Amazon Bedrock. Oracle has made generative AI services available through its Indian cloud regions.

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