Sundar Pichai Beats Satya Nadella

Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai has emerged as the most influential Indian-origin business leader in the HSBC Hurun Global Indians List 2026, leading a company valued at $4.2 trillion.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella ranked second, while Micron Technology Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra secured the third position. YouTube Chief Executive Officer Neal Mohan and Google Cloud Chief Executive Officer Thomas Kurian completed the top five.

The latest edition features 236 Indian-origin leaders heading 200 companies headquartered outside India. These companies collectively carry a valuation of $15 trillion, up 53 per cent from $9.9 trillion in 2024 and employ nearly 5.3 million people worldwide.

The firms also generated $2.5 trillion in revenue during 2025 and their aggregate net profit reached $416 billion.

Alphabet's valuation nearly doubled, rising 98 per cent since 2024, while Microsoft dropped 17 per cent, allowing Alphabet to take the top spot among companies led by global Indian executives.

Micron saw valuation surged 1,174 per cent to $1.4 trillion, reflecting strong demand for memory chips used in AI infrastructure. The five largest companies are valued at $9.1 trillion, accounting for 61 per cent of the total and the top ten represent nearly 70 per cent.

Artificial intelligence entered the ranking as a separate industry for the first time and its 18 companies carried a combined valuation of $227 billion.

Nearly 103 companies are AI-driven or AI-integrated, together representing $10.7 trillion, or 71 per cent of the list's total value. Cursor, valued at $60 billion, led the start-up rankings and seven of the ten most valuable start-ups operate in AI, and all are based in the US.

Software and services remained the largest sector with 53 companies, followed by financial services with 31 firms and healthcare with 21 companies.