Never Compromise

After one year of New Presidency, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sounds a lot different about immigration — and that may be a good thing

Almost exactly one year ago, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stood in front of cheering employees vowing to "stand together" and "never compromise" in opposing the new administration's travel ban.

On Friday, Pichai spoke out again in defense of immigration and of the benefits that immigrants bring to the US. But the India-born CEO, himself perhaps a perfect embodiment of the cause, seemed to have ditched his firebrand approach in favor of a more diplomatic tone.

"It's really important that we don't make it a tech-versus-the-rest-of-the-country issue," Pichai said onstage during a Q&A event in San Francisco, when asked about immigration by the hosts Kara Swisher and Ari Melber.

Matthew Weinberger: Still, after a year of the Trump presidency, Pichai appears to have adapted to the political climate. Instead of "never compromise," Pichai stressed the need for Google to play a "constructive" role in the immigration debate.

"We are very open to constructively reforming the H-1B process," Pichai said, referring to the visas that allow US companies like Google to hire foreign workers.

This softening in tone may not be the capitulation it appears to be, though.

Sure, as a publicly owned company, Google has a responsibility to its shareholders to get on with business, and it would be unrealistic to expect Google to go to the mat on any issue that doesn't directly affect its bottom line.

But Pichai's real message seemed to be that Silicon Valley needed to be smarter to win this battle.