Google appoints Amin Vahdat as new chief of AI infrastructure: Report

Google strengthens its AI leadership by naming longtime executive Amin Vahdat as the new chief technologist for AI infrastructure, according to a Semafor report. The news comes from an internal memo that also revealed that Vahdat will directly report to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. This showcases how Google is ramping up its AI strategies and is reported to spend nearly $93 billion on data centers, servers, chips, and networking by the end of 2025. 

In the memo, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said, “This change establishes AI Infrastructure as a key focus area for the company.” Vahdat has been a crucial figure at Google for the past 15 years and is helping to shape the company’s AI backbone. He has been silently doing engineering work to keep Google ahead of its competitors like OpenAI. He plays a major role in developing custom TPU chips, and he also oversees Google’s Jupiter network, which is an internal data network.

Now Vahdat will have even crucial responsibilities as Google’s chief technologist for AI infrastructure. Reportedly, he’ll steer Google’s next phase in boosting its AI-related efforts that will ensure computational power, networking systems, and custom hardware. 

Before joining Google, Vahdat was an associate professor at Duke University, and later joined UC San Diego as a professor and SAIC Chair. He also has about 400 published papers that focus on optimizing how computers operate at a massive scale. Therefore, with years of experience and deep understanding in building AI infrastructure, Vahdat is well-positioned to guide Google for its next era of growth.