- Google’s investment chief said there’s a “tremendous” opportunity in working with Donald Trump.
- Ruth Porat, formerly Google’s CFO, was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
- Her remarks come a day after Google CEO Sundar Pichai was seated onstage at Trump’s inauguration.
President Donald Trump is back, and Google’s chief investment officer says the tech giant is ready to work with the returning administration.
“I think the president and his team have been clear that they see technology as an asset for the country,” said Ruth Porat, speaking Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “They see the economic upside that comes with executing the right way. They want to clear away some of the impediments to investing.”
Porat, who served as Google’s CFO for nearly a decade before shifting into a new role as its president and chief investment officer in 2024, added that she expects the administration to act quickly on issues like permitting that are key to powering investment and growth.
“I think that there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity to keep working with him as we did in Trump 1.0,” she said.
Porat’s remarks come a day after her boss, CEO Sundar Pichai, was seated on the dais at the US Capitol for Trump’s inauguration — a row behind Trump’s family members and ahead of several of his cabinet nominees.
As Trump begins his second term, Google is also embroiled in multiple antitrust lawsuits with the US Justice Department related to its search and advertising businesses.
Prosecutors under the Biden administration asked a federal judge to force Google to sell off its Chrome business following a ruling in August that said the company illegally acted as a monopoly in its search business.
In October, responding to a question about a potential breakup, Trump said that Google has “a lot of power” and that he would “do something” about it.
“How they became a power is, you know, really the discussion,” he said. “At the same time, it’s a very dangerous thing because want to have great companies — we don’t want China to have these companies. Right now, China is afraid of Google.”
Since then, Google’s CEO Pichai has met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Trump called Pichai “a great guy” during a podcast interview with Joe Rogan, saying they had also spoken on the phone.
Earlier this month, Google more than tripled its 2017 donation to Trump’s inauguration fund with a million-dollar donation, joining other tech giants in making seven-figure gifts.
In Davos, Porat said that “nothing is easy.”
“It requires each of us to constructively engage — as I expect they will — as we most certainly want to make sure things get landed in the most productive way,” she said.
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