Sundar Pichai tops HSBC Hurun Global Indians List 2026

Mumbai: The valuation of top global companies helmed by the Indian diaspora has jumped 53 per cent to USD 15 trillion largely led by the AI boom, a report said on Thursday.

The HSBC Hurun Global Indians List 2026 said the artificial intelligence (AI) boom in the market led to a sharp jump in the valuations, adding that such firms were valued at USD 9.9 trillion two years back.

Sundar Pichai tops the list in the current edition as Alphabet, the company headed by him, commands the highest valuation of USD 4.2 trillion, the report said, adding that June 25 was the cut-off for the current edition.

Satya Nadella of Microsoft ranks second at USD 2.6 trillion and is followed by Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron Technology at USD 1.4 trillion, the report said.

A majority 103 of the 200 companies on the list are AI-driven or AI-integrated, together valued at USD 10.7 trillion or 71 per cent of the list value, it said. Companies on the list generate USD 2.5 trillion in annual revenue and employ 53 lakh people, it said.

"The reach of the global Indians is something most people experience without realising it," Hurun India's Founder and Chief Researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said. A total of 76 companies are new to the list this year, it said, adding that 127 of the 200 companies are publicly listed, while the remaining 73 are privately held. The list includes 49 startups, which are collectively valued at USD 398 billion, it said. The entry cut-off to make it into the list has doubled to USD 2.5 billion valuation in the current edition of the list as compared to the USD 1.2 billion at the last edition of the list two years ago.

Fifty-three per cent of the people on the list, which ranks 236 individuals leading the 200 companies, are professionals like Pichai and Nadella, while 44 per cent are first-generation entrepreneurs, it said, adding that second-generation leaders make up for the remaining 3 per cent of the entrants. The US accounts for 177 entrants on the list, and more than a third of the people on the list are based in California alone, it said.

San Francisco is home to the largest number of the diaspora business leaders on the list at 40, and is followed by Dubai at 15, and Palo Alto and London with 13 each. IIT Delhi has the most entrants by undergraduate institute at 15, while Stanford University has the most by postgraduate institute at 19, as per the list.

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