--- description: Find out why Sundar Pichai is one of the 100 most influential people of 2026. title: Sundar Pichai: The 100 Most Influential People of 2026 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdda8315810c896fa/69d7cf5b47096d2630acaf1b/T100-2026-Web-Sundar-Pichai.JPG?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 15, 2026 # Sundar Pichai by Andrew Ng  Damian Lemanski—Bloomberg/Getty Images Few leaders have brought artificial intelligence to more people than[ Sundar Pichai](https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012748/sundar-pichai-2/ "undefined"). Since becoming CEO of Google in 2015, he has overseen the translation and implementation of Google’s research breakthroughs into products used by billions. After OpenAI captured the public imagination with [ChatGPT’s](https://time.com/article/2026/03/25/openai-chatgpt-model-spec-document/ "undefined") 2022 launch, Google faced questions about its leadership in AI. Pichai responded decisively, merging the company’s premier labs, Google Brain and DeepMind, to create Gemini, which the company rolled out as a stand-alone product and integrated with Search, Android, Chrome, Google Cloud, and more. Even though Google is 27 years old, Pichai’s leadership has emphasized startup-like nimbleness, launching innovative AI products—like Nano Banana, Google AI Studio, Notebook LM, Gemini CLI, and Antigravity—not directly tied to its core ad businesses. As a result, Google remains an AI deep-tech powerhouse, and its AI systems are reshaping how information is created and consumed worldwide. In an era when AI is redefining knowledge, work, and power, Pichai’s influence lies not only in what Google builds, but in how widely it is used. _Ng is the founder of DeepLearning.AI and the co-founder of Google Brain_ Sundar Pichai Is on the 2026 TIME100 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/sundar-pichai/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/sundar-pichai/"},"headline":"Sundar Pichai","datePublished":"2026-04-15T11:00:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:21:51.806Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/sundar-pichai/","keywords":["TIME 100","list","franchise","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdda8315810c896fa/69d7cf5b47096d2630acaf1b/T100-2026-Web-Sundar-Pichai.JPG?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Andrew Ng"}],"creator":"Andrew Ng","articleSection":"TIME100","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdda8315810c896fa/69d7cf5b47096d2630acaf1b/T100-2026-Web-Sundar-Pichai.JPG?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/time100/","name":"TIME100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-100/","name":"TIME 100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/sundar-pichai/","name":"Sundar Pichai"}}]}] ```