In an interview published Oct. 20, 2026, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said it would be incredibly difficult for Google Cloud to accommodate a customer seeking compute for 2027. He also said Google Cloud gives up some short-term revenue when it allocates computing resources to frontier-AI development.
Google DeepMind gets first call on compute
Pichai described Google’s priority as giving Google DeepMind access to compute for frontier research and model development, then planning capacity for the company’s other businesses. That ordering is the trade-off behind the revenue he said Google Cloud forgoes.
Google plans capacity years ahead
Pichai said Google plans its compute needs two to three years in advance. At the time of the interview, he said, the company’s current compute reflected decisions made in 2024. He also described Google as capacity-constrained on a daily basis and pointed to long construction and procurement timelines. Memory, electricity, electricians, and land were among the possible constraints he cited in building out capacity.
Google has leased short-term compute for some customers
Pichai said Google leased short-term compute the previous year to accommodate some customers. He did not describe this as a general solution to the longer planning timelines.
