Watch: Sundar Pichai, on a break at AI Summit, enjoys Malabar coffee

“Wow!” Sundar Pichai exclaimed after tasting Bharat GI Coffee, adding with a smile, “Malabar Arabica is close to us,” as he interacted with baristas

Updated on: Feb 19, 2026, 14:15:42 IST

By HT News Desk

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Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai had a delightful pause from artificial intelligence discussions to savour India’s finest brews at the Bharat GI Coffee Lounge set up by DPIIT during the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.

Sundar Pichai with employees of the Bharat GI coffee. (Sourced)

“Wow!” Pichai exclaimed after tasting Bharat GI Coffee, adding with a smile, “Malabar Arabica is close to us,” as he interacted with baristas and sampled different varieties. From Araku to Coorg, India’s premium GI-tagged coffees found an unlikely spotlight amid high-level AI deliberations.

The lounge quickly turned into a convergence point of India’s traditional strengths and technological ambitions - where GI products, UPI innovation and AI vision symbolically came together. The moment underscored India's growing identity as a product nation across sectors, blending heritage with high technology.

Earlier in the day at Bharat Mandapam, Sundar Pichai delivered a keynote address reflecting on his student days travelling on the Coromandel Express from Chennai to IIT Kharagpur, recalling a quieter Visakhapatnam brimming with potential.

Drawing a parallel to the present, he announced that Google is establishing a full-stack AI hub in Visakhapatnam as part of a $15 billion infrastructure investment in India.

The hub will house gigawatt-scale compute capacity and a new international subsea cable gateway, positioning the coastal city as a global AI node and reinforcing India’s role in the global technology ecosystem.

The five-day summit, underway from February 16 to 20, focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence for shared global growth under the pillars of People, Planet and Progress.

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HT News Desk
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