Pichai Responds To Nadella’s “Dance” Jab As AI Rivalry Heats Up

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India-West News Desk

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – In a subtle retort, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has responded to Microsoft chief Satya Nadella’s 2023 quip that Microsoft had made Google “dance” in the AI race. The remark came during a wide-ranging interview on the All-In Podcast, where Pichai was asked to weigh in on the competitive landscape defined by tech titans like OpenAI, Meta, xAI, and Microsoft.

Asked by host David Friedberg about how he viewed his counterparts—Sam Altman (OpenAI), Elon Musk (xAI), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), and Satya Nadella (Microsoft)—Pichai responded diplomatically, while sliding in a dry, pointed reference to Nadella’s earlier comments.

“Obviously, by definition, it’s a very impressive group,” said Pichai. “You’re talking about some of the best companies, some of the best entrepreneurs. It shows how much progress we are going to see, because you’re basically talking about many people who are working hard to drive that progress.”

Then came the jab.

“Each of them, they’re different people. I am fortunate to know all of them. I think maybe only one of them has invited me to a dance—not the others,” Pichai said, with a hint of irony.

The dance metaphor originated during a February 2023 interview Nadella gave to The Verge. “They’re an unbelievable company with great talent, and I have a lot of respect for Sundar and his team,” he said of Google adding, “At the end of the day, they’re the 800-pound gorilla in this and I hope that, with our innovation, they will definitely want to come out and show that they can dance. I want people to know that we made them dance—and I think that’ll be a great day.”

Since that challenge, Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model has been outperforming rivals on several key benchmarks.