The Great Tech Game Podcast: Geopolitics, Technology, Business and Global Affairs, with Anirudh Suri

In this episode of The Great Tech Game, Anirudh Suri, Author and Host of The Great Tech Game Podcast, sits down with Nils Gilman, Deputy Editor of NOEMA Magazine, Editor-in-Chief of Berggruen Press and Executive Vice President of the Berggruen Institute, to unpack how history can help us make sense of today's contest over technology, sovereignty and global governance.This conversation spans a wide range of topics: from whether we are fighting a new Cold War for control and influence over the Global South to why China built its own tech champions while India opened its doors, to what Thailand and Malaysia's car industries teach us about "tech sovereignty" strategies, to how AI is breaking the way universities teach and test.We explore:- Are today's tech giants the new East India Company?- Is technology pushing nations toward economic convergence or divergence?- China kept foreign tech out. India let it in. Who got it right?- Can smaller countries like Vietnam really build their own AI stack?- Is "tech sovereignty" just autarky by another name?- What is "weaponized interdependence," and why are countries pulling back from globalization?- Can we govern planetary problems like climate change, pandemics and open-weight AI models?- How should universities and careers change in the age of AI?About the Guest:Nils Gilman is Deputy Editor of NOEMA Magazine, Editor-in-Chief of Berggruen Press and Executive Vice President of the Berggruen Institute. A historian by training, he is the co-author of Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crisis, and the author of Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America and Deviant Globalization: Black Market Economy in the 21st Century.About Anirudh Suri, Host of The Great Tech Game Podcast:Anirudh Suri is a non-resident scholar with Carnegie India, where his research and writing focus on technology, artificial intelligence and geopolitics. He is the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, and host of The Great Tech Game Podcast. He is also the Managing Partner at India Internet Fund, a US and India based technology-focused venture capital fund.The Great Tech Game by Anirudh Suri - https://amzn.eu/d/1Su38MyFollow Anirudh here:X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/anirudhsuriLinkedIn: / anirudhsuri Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Facebook: / anirudhsuri.in Website: https://anirudhsuri.com/#thegreattechgame #tgtgpodcast #noema #berggrueninstitute #noemamagazine #berggruen #geopolitics #AI #artificialintelligence #globalaffairs #techpolicy #sovereignAI #techsovereignty #indiaAI #china #globalgovernance #education #postAIuniversity #anirudhsuri #nilsgilman

In this episode of The Great Tech Game Podcast, Anirudh Suri, Author and Host of The Great Tech Game Podcast, sits down with Ian Bremmer, Founder and President of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. Bremmer has spent his career helping business leaders, policymakers and the public make sense of global power shifts, and in this conversation he makes the case that tech companies, and the people running them, are evolving into a new category of geopolitical actors, one that didn't really exist before.We start with the Starlink decision during the Russia-Ukraine war as a case study in what this kind of power actually looks like in practice. From there, we dig into the structural forces driving today's geopolitics, the competing models of the US, China and Europe, the push for "sovereign AI," and where India stands in the global AI race.We explore:
How are tech companies and their founders starting to function as sovereigns in the geopolitical space?
What kind of social backlash could this shift in power trigger, and could it change how governments and tech companies work together?
What are the structural forces reshaping the balance of power in the world today, but especially between the US, Russia and China?
Is the "Thucydides Trap" the right historical analogy for the US-China relationship?
What do the US, Chinese and European models of capitalism reveal about where each system is headed?
Is "sovereign AI" a viable strategy for middle powers, or should countries think about it differently?
Where does India genuinely stand in the AI race, and what's the risk most people aren't talking about?
▶️ Watch the full conversation now, and subscribe to The Great Tech Game Podcast!About the guest, Dr. Ian Bremmer: Dr. Ian Bremmer is the founder and president of Eurasia Group, one of the world's leading global research and advisory firms, and GZERO Media, a digital media company providing intelligent and engaging coverage of international affairs. He helps business leaders, policymakers and the general public make sense of global events through speeches, commentary, and media formats reaching a wide public audience.About Anirudh Suri, Host of The Great Tech Game Podcast: Anirudh Suri is a non-resident scholar with Carnegie India, where his research and writing focus on technology, artificial intelligence and geopolitics. He is the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, and host of The Great Tech Game Podcast. He is also the Managing Partner at India Internet Fund, a US and India based technology-focused venture capital fund.

In this episode of The Great Tech Game Podcast, Anirudh sits down with Amitabh Kant, India's former G20 Sherpa and former CEO of NITI Aayog, alongside Wilson White, Vice President of Government Affairs & Public Policy at Google Asia-Pacific.

The relationship between governments and Big Tech is growing more precarious by the day, even as the two become increasingly interdependent. One would assume their larger interests to be aligned in service of society, but it's growing harder to tell if they're fundamentally at odds. And so as AI becomes a strategic asset, where does corporate power end and state control begin?

We start with how these two central actors respond to a crisis as significant as Iran: Google's shift toward operational resilience, and governments' focus on securing supply chain stability. From there, we widen the lens to the global AI race and India's positioning within it: where its strengths lie, and what it can learn from examples elsewhere in the world.

We explore:
- What distinguishes how governments and Big Tech firms like Google respond to a global crisis like Iran?
- Is India really a 'loser' in the AI race, as many argue, or does that framing limit how we think about AI's possibilities more holistically?
- What steps do firms like Google take to ensure AI readiness?
- In a world built on global interoperability and mutual learning, what does the idea of Sovereign AI really mean, and how should we view it through a wider lens?
- What are the critical gaps in India's AI ecosystem that need urgent attention, and where do its unique strengths lie?
- Finally, what lessons can India draw from other countries across the APAC region?

▶️ Watch the full conversation now, and subscribe to The Great Tech Game Podcast!
---Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
3:38 - How India and Google Handled the Iran Crisis
10:47 - What do India and Google Need to Power AI
14:44 - Assessing India's AI Ecosystem
21:40 - India's Critical Gaps and Unique Strengths
25:48 - Lessons India Can Learn from APAC
29:14 - How Can Big Tech Help India Achieve Its AI Ambitions?
37:01 - Will Access to Frontier Models Be a Problem for India?
41:28 -The Myth of Sovereign AI
46:17 - Rapid Fire Round
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About the Guests:
Amitabh Kant is one of India's most influential policymakers, having served as the CEO of NITI Aayog and India's G20 Sherpa. Over a four-decade career in public service, he has led several of the country's most ambitious reform initiatives, including Make in India, Startup India, and the Aspirational Districts Programme.
Wilson White is Google's Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy, based in Singapore, where he leads the company's engagement with governments and regulators across Asia-Pacific while also overseeing global policy efforts for several core product areas.
About Anirudh Suri, Host of the Podcast:Anirudh Suri is a non-resident scholar with Carnegie India, where his research and writing focus on technology, artificial intelligence and geopolitics. He is the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, and host of The Great Tech Game Podcast. He is also the Managing Partner at India Internet Fund, a US and India based technology-focused venture capital fund.

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In this episode of The Great Tech Game podcast, we sit down with Kanwal Rekhi, venture capitalist, the first Indian-American to take a venture-backed company public on the NASDAQ, and co-founder of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE).

We discuss why he believes entrepreneurs are the new freedom fighters for India. Rekhi traces the journey of India from being branded as a "land of snake charmers" to becoming a global "technological powerhouse," arguing that the next phase of India’s independence is economic—freedom from hunger and poverty driven by a massive surge in entrepreneurship.

Rekhi offers a provocative look at how India should aim to reclaim its #1 global economic spot by 2047. He challenges conventional wisdom on "brain drain," the role of the government in regulation, and why a "politics of wealth creation" must precede the "politics of wealth distribution".

We explore:

- How has the nature of starting a business changed from the early days of PC hardware and networking to the current era of AI?\

- Why are entrepreneurs the "new freedom fighters"?

- Is "brain drain" actually a benefit? Has the exodus of Indian talent to the US built a "brain trust" for India instead?

- What is the "Noble Experiment" of India? Can a country this diverse and poor sustain both a constitutional democracy and a free market better than the model seen in China?

- Why should India build 1,000 IITs? Why is investing in "people and their brains" the highest ROI the government can achieve?

- How do we fix the "dead arm" of the Indian economy by empowering entrepreneurs in small towns?

- What can India learn from the US about venture capital and taxes?

- Why is the current Indian regulatory framework potentially stifling the 10 million entrepreneurs we need by 2047?

▶️ Watch the full conversation now, and subscribe to The Great Tech Game.

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About the Guest:

Kanwal Rekhi is an Indian-American entrepreneur, investor, and mentor best known as the first Indian-American founder to take a venture-backed company public in the United States, when networking startup Excelan was listed on the stock exchange in 1987. After the company’s IPO and merger, Rekhi shifted his focus toward enabling entrepreneurship, mentoring more than 10,000 founders and investing in over 200 early-stage startups, including companies such as Exodus Communications, Poshmark, redBus, Sierra Atlantic, and NetMagic. Today, as Managing Director of Inventus Capital Partners and SV Quad, and as a co-founder of TiE Global, Rekhi continues to champion entrepreneurship with a mission to help create 10 million entrepreneurs by India’s 100th anniversary.

About Anirudh Suri, Host of the Podcast:

Anirudh Suri is a non-resident scholar with Carnegie India, where his research and writing focus on technology, artificial intelligence and geopolitics. He is the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, and host of The Great Tech Game Podcast. He is also the Managing Partner at India Internet Fund, a US and India based technology-focused venture capital fund.

The Great Tech Game by Anirudh Suri - https://amzn.eu/d/1Su38My

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In this episode of the AI Futures Podcast, host Anirudh Suri sits down with Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, member of the UN High Level Advisory Body on AI, and Harvard Kennedy School alum, to unpack Vilas' unique perspective on how technology can be harnessed as a force for global good. The conversation explores Vilas’s personal journey—from a childhood split between rural Illinois and villages outside Bangalore—to his current work overseeing half a billion dollars in investments focused on responsible AI. Dhar highlights successful initiatives like Climate Trace, which uses data to monitor carbon emissions, as examples of how AI can serve humanity beyond mere profit. The conversation addresses the importance of moving away from a Western-centric "AI race" toward a model of inclusive leadership.Key topics include:* How local constraints in the Global South are driving world-class innovation, such as India’s Sarvam AI.* The transition from tech "overdependence" to global interdependence, where every country finds its unique niche.* Real-world examples of AI for good, including Climate Trace, a platform for tracking carbon emissions used by thousands of organizations.* Why the next generation of students in Indian universities gives Vilas more hope for the future than anything coming out of Silicon Valley.Watch Anirudh and Vilas in conversation to understand what an AI-enabled world could look like if we started from values and principles first, as the world's AI conversation moves to India.Subscribe and listen to the full conversation now.Chapters & Timestamps00:00 – Introduction & Reflections on the India AI Summit02:30 – A Journey Between Two Worlds05:15 – The Patrick McGovern Foundation & Responsible AI06:45 – AI for Good: Tracking Climate Change with Climate Trace08:30 – India’s AI Strategy: Innovation, Constraints, and Sarvam AI11:00 – From Overdependence to Global Interdependence in AI13:15 – Why Indian University Students are the Real Source of Hope15:30 – Shifting the Narrative: From "AI Race" to "AI Leadership"18:00 – Grounding Technology in Music, Arts, and Human Values20:15 – Final Reflections & Book/Podcast Recommendations-------Follow the India AI Impact Summit 2026: https://impact.indiaai.gov.in/*About Vilas Dhar*Vilas Dhar is recognized as a leading global expert on the future of AI and its role in shaping society. As President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, he leads one of the world’s foremost philanthropies committed to demonstrating how data and AI can be harnessed to advance equity, human dignity, and collective progress. Vilas has also served as a member of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, and is the U.S. Government’s nominated expert to the Global Partnership on AI. Read more about Patrick J. McGovern Foundation here: https://www.mcgovern.org/Climate Trace Project: https://climatetrace.org/*About Anirudh Suri, Host of the Podcast*Anirudh Suri is a non-resident scholar with Carnegie India. He is the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, and host of The Great Tech Game Podcast. He is also the Managing Partner at India Internet Fund, a US and India based technology-focused venture capital fund.
The Great Tech Game by Anirudh Suri - https://amzn.eu/d/1Su38My Follow Anirudh here:X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/anirudhsuriLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anirudhsuri/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anirudh_suriFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnirudhSuri.inWebsite: (http://www.anirudhsuri.com/) Book and Podcast: (http://www.greattechgame.com/)#IndiaAI #IndiaAIImpactSummit2026 #AIFuturesPodcast #AISummit #TGTGPodcast #AnirudhSuri #AI #TheGreatTechGame #VilasDhar #patrickjmcgovernfoundation #aiforgood #philanthropy #responsibleai #climatetrace #globalsouth #globalsouthai