Found money for studies by working as car parking attendant and waiter in cafes: Story of Malayali brain behind Google's Rs 1.32 lakh crore AI Hub

KOTTAYAM: Kerala can be proud that the idea behind Google's project in Visakhapatnam for new discoveries in the field of AI is the brainchild of a Malayali, Thomas Kurian. This is Google's largest investment outside the US, at Rs 1.32 lakh crore.

The plan is to implement the project within five years. Google is making such a huge investment at a time when US President Donald Trump is hurting India by imposing additional tariffs.

Google Clouds Global CEO Thomas Kurian is a native of Pampady, Kottayam. He is one of the four children of the late P.C. Kurian of Kothala Pullolikkal and Molly Kurian of the Adoor Arapura family. In addition to Thomas Kurian and his twin brother George Kurian, his elder brothers Jacob Kurian and Matthew Kurian also studied at St. Joseph's in Bengaluru.

Later, George and Thomas followed the same path and chose IIT Madras. Within a month, they went to an American university together with a scholarship.

Thomas Kurian joined Google Cloud in November 2018 after a long career at Oracle, where he was instrumental in developing its middleware business.

Studying by working as a waiter

Thomas Kurian and his brother found money for their studies by working as car parking attendants and waiters in cafes in America. Both of them joined Oracle after completing their college studies. Both of them married American women. It is also interesting that these twins are the CEOs of two leading cloud companies in America. Thomas is the CEO of Google Clouds. George is the CEO of NetApp. Thomas Kurian now has more assets than Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

1.88 lakh jobs

The hub is expected to generate over 1.88 lakh direct and indirect jobs. This will provide an opportunity for IT professionals to get high-paying jobs in their own country. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that this is the beginning of a new era.

This will be a major investment project by the company outside the US. It will also become a hub for Google's subsea cable.

-Thomas Kurien