Sundar Pichai on what's next for Google Gemini, Waymo, and data centers in space

Even Google can’t get enough compute. I sit down with Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai shortly after the wider release of Gemini 4 Argon to discuss its early reception, where he still wants the model to improve, and what it takes to keep Google at the frontier of AI.

Pichai explains the recent leadership shakeup at Google DeepMind and why building frontier models has become an “all-consuming” job. We also get into Google’s answer to the personal agent race, how he predicts Gemini will do more work on your behalf, and whether agents will finally bring Search, Gmail, and Gemini together.

I ask him about Google turning free cash flow negative, the risks in the AI infrastructure buildout, and how he plans for demand years before knowing what the models will be capable of. He explains the signals giving him confidence to keep spending and how he uses AI agents to follow model development and compute usage inside Google.

We also discuss Project Suncatcher, Google’s new effort to put AI data centers in space, and why he thinks it belongs alongside bets like Waymo. He shares what’s next for Waymo and Wing, and when he expects quantum computing to become a real business.

This episode's presenting sponsor is Hyperagent - https://www.hyperagent.com/

Thanks to the show’s premiere sponsors: Atlassian, Granola, and Mercury.