Dec 10 (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google has appointed longtime executive Amin Vahdat as chief technologist for artificial intelligence infrastructure, Semafor reported on Wednesday, citing an internal memo. The tech giant has invested billions in the computing backbone needed for artificial intelligence.
The move comes as the company ramps up spending on data centers and hardware to support artificial intelligence workloads, with capital spending expected to top $90 billion by the end of the year.
“This change establishes AI infrastructure as a key focus area for the company,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian reportedly said in the memo.
Google did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Tech giants are locked in a high-stakes race for artificial intelligence supremacy, and control of computing power is becoming the ultimate differentiator.
Google designed its own tensor processing unit (TPU), believing that scale and internal innovation would help it compete in a market where infrastructure has become as important as algorithms.
Microsoft has invested heavily in data centers and its partnership with OpenAI, while Amazon is expanding its custom chip offerings for AWS.
The frenzy highlights how the artificial intelligence boom is reshaping corporate priorities, with Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasizing “disciplined spending” on the back of a $155 billion cloud backlog.
(Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
