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How Google Cloud Is Winning the Next Generation of AI Startups

Cansin Cengiz

25 Sep 2025 — 3 min read

Google Cloud’s Bold Strategy Amidst Mega AI Deals

While the AI world is abuzz with news of headline-grabbing partnerships—like the recent $100 billion Nvidia-OpenAI deal—Google Cloud is quietly pursuing its own high-stakes play. Instead of focusing solely on mega-corporate tie-ups, Google is making a concerted push to capture the next generation of AI startups, aiming to become the foundational platform for tomorrow’s unicorns.

The New Race for AI Infrastructure

The AI infrastructure landscape is evolving rapidly. Massive investments from industry leaders have reshaped the playing field:

Nvidia and OpenAI’s $100 billion partnership is set to deliver enough computing power for millions of households.
Microsoft’s initial $1 billion investment in OpenAI has ballooned to nearly $14 billion, dramatically shifting the cloud market.
Amazon has poured $8 billion into Anthropic, customizing AI infrastructure tightly to its own cloud systems.
Oracle secured a $30 billion cloud deal with OpenAI and later a $300 billion, five-year commitment starting in 2027.
Meta, even as it builds its own platforms, signed a $10 billion deal with Google Cloud and plans $600 billion in US infrastructure spending through 2028.

Google’s Unique Approach: Betting on Startups

Google Cloud, under the guidance of COO Francis deSouza, is charting a different course. Instead of chasing after the largest, most established AI companies, Google is targeting high-potential startups and unicorns before they reach the mainstream. According to deSouza, nine out of the top 10 AI labs already use Google infrastructure, and 60% of generative AI startups worldwide have chosen Google as their provider. The company has secured $58 billion in new revenue commitments over the next two years—double its current annual run rate.

Google’s strategy is simple: provide best-in-class technology, generous cloud credits (up to $350,000 for AI startups), access to technical teams, and comprehensive go-to-market support. The goal is to make Google Cloud the default choice for up-and-coming AI innovators, offering flexibility and openness at every layer—from custom chips to open-source models and applications.

Building a Flexible and Open AI Stack

One of Google’s major selling points is its commitment to openness. The company continues to contribute foundational tools and protocols to the AI community, such as Kubernetes and the Transformer architecture. More recently, Google introduced the open-source Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol for inter-agent communication, reaffirming its belief in collaborative progress.

Google’s infrastructure isn’t just about software. The company is expanding its custom AI chip business, placing its TPUs (Tensor Processing Units) in other cloud providers’ data centers—including a major deal with Fluidstack backed by $3.2 billion for a New York facility. This gives startups multiple ways to access cutting-edge hardware, regardless of their primary cloud provider.

Competing While Collaborating

What makes Google’s position unique is its dual role: it competes directly in AI (with its Gemini models) while providing critical infrastructure to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic. Google Cloud hosts Anthropic’s Claude model and supplies TPUs to OpenAI, even as it fosters its own AI ecosystem. This approach mirrors the company’s open-source ethos—enabling innovation at every layer, even if it means helping future competitors.

Navigating Regulatory Scrutiny

Google’s aggressive push into AI infrastructure comes as regulators worldwide scrutinize its market power. A recent US court ruling stopped short of breaking up Google’s search or browser businesses but signaled ongoing concern about the company using its data and dominance to gain an unfair advantage in AI. By positioning itself as an open, startup-friendly platform, Google aims to show regulators that it enables competition rather than stifling it.

Looking Ahead: AI for Good

Beyond the business race, deSouza emphasizes the broader impact of AI. He envisions Google Cloud powering breakthroughs in healthcare, climate science, and beyond. From understanding Alzheimer’s to accelerating climate technologies, Google wants to be at the forefront of the next wave of innovation.

Conclusion

As the AI infrastructure market consolidates, Google Cloud is staking its future on nurturing the next wave of AI leaders. By prioritizing openness, technical excellence, and support for startups, Google is quietly building the foundation for the next era of artificial intelligence—one where tomorrow’s giants may well get their start on Google’s cloud.