AI Startups Are Facing a ReckoningRead more

The People With Power at Google Cloud

In February, a month after Thomas Kurian became CEO of Google’s cloud computing unit, he pledged publicly that Google Cloud would compete “much more aggressively” than in the past, promising to significantly expand its sales force in order to land more Fortune 500 companies as customers.

Since then, Mr. Kurian has moved quickly to put his stamp on the unit, shuffling the leadership of its sales division. The new team is part of the organizational chart above that shows the more than 150 people running the cloud unit, including the 19 people who report directly to its CEO. Mr. Kurian has also expanded Google Cloud’s offerings through its largest ever acquisition and by absorbing another unit from within Alphabet, Google’s parent company. And Mr. Kurian is discussing a partnership with the software provider VMware, which could help it make inroads with large business customers.

But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed under Mr. Kurian: Google Cloud is still stuck in third place in the cloud computing market behind Amazon and Microsoft, and it isn’t clear if that will change anytime soon.

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