Did anyone imagine that Silicon Valley, now known as the world’s tech hub, would one day see so many global companies led by Indians? Today, firms like Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, YouTube, and Palo Alto Networks have Indian-origin leaders at the helm.
Yet, while Indians are leading these global giants, the companies themselves remain headquartered abroad, not in India.
Indian-origin CEOs currently head more than 20 major multinational corporations. It’s natural to celebrate this remarkable rise, but it also raises a larger question: how to build global-scale companies rooted in India itself.
Indians lead the tech market.
At the forefront is Alphabet Inc. and Google, led by Sundar Pichai. Satya Nadella guides Microsoft, while Neal Mohan heads YouTube.
The remarkable trend highlights how Indian education, global exposure, and leadership skills are shaping the future of international business at the highest level.
Top Indian companies such as Infosys, Wipro, TCS, and Reliance are also led by Indian leadership and remain headquartered in India. These firms were built and scaled within the country, drawing heavily on India’s talent pool, domestic market, and growing global ambitions.
Indians have risen in global corporations.
Recently, India hosted the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, where global leaders and tech giant CEOs participated. French President Emmanuel Macron hailed India as a global technology power and reiterated that all the CEOs of high-tech companies are Indian.
Recently, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu commented on social media platform X that Indians have risen in global corporations due to organisational loyalty — meaning they had long tenures in these firms, giving them the edge.
According to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2025, Indians have co-founded over 130 unicorns overseas — over 90 per cent in the US, and a handful in the UK and Germany.
Among the largest are San Francisco-based Databricks (valued at $62 billion), design platform Figma ($12.5 billion), and AI-native search startup Perplexity AI ($9 billion).
Over the past month, the race for artificial intelligence has accelerated sharply, with rapid breakthroughs and rising investments intensifying global competition.
Against this backdrop, India’s push for AI gains added relevance, as founders and innovators across the country work to harness the technology and position India for a stronger, future-ready economy.
The perception that Indians thrive and achieve greater productivity overseas, while often struggling to find similar momentum at home, continues to fuel debate over why immigrant Indians have found such remarkable success in countries like the United States.
