Sridhar Vembu, co-founder of Zoho, has raised concerns over the growing technological and financial power of global Big Tech companies, saying their control over digital infrastructure now rivals that of sovereign nations and requires an urgent strategic response from countries like India.
His remarks came after Alphabet raised nearly $32 billion through a bond sale, including ultra-long 100-year debt. Vembu pointed out that such large and long-term capital mobilisation, typically associated with governments, allows hyperscalers to invest aggressively in artificial intelligence, global cloud regions, subsea cable networks and large-scale data centres.
According to him, companies such as Google and Meta have moved beyond being software providers to become core digital infrastructure operators. Their platforms today support communication, enterprise applications, digital advertising, developer ecosystems and AI workloads used by startups, corporations and even public sector projects.
Vembu said this creates deep structural dependence as businesses build their products on foreign cloud and AI stacks, making switching difficult due to high migration costs, data gravity and platform lock-in. He added that while India contributes significantly in terms of engineering talent and data generation, a large share of the economic value is captured by overseas platform owners.
Calling for “technology sovereignty,” he stressed the need for long-term investments in domestic cloud infrastructure, AI capabilities, semiconductor ecosystems and globally competitive SaaS products. Owning the technology stack, he said, is critical for ensuring innovation, retaining economic value and maintaining strategic autonomy in the digital economy.
Vembu’s broader message is that in the AI-driven era, control over compute, data and digital platforms will define economic power, and nations that fail to build indigenous capabilities risk remaining dependent consumers in the global technology value chain.
