Sundar Pichai's birthday: A look back on the year he had and what's next

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai celebrates his 50th birthday on June 10.

Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer of Google parent Alphabet, celebrates his 50th birthday on June 10. To mark the occasion, we look back on his year and what is next for him.

Alphabet Inc had briefly hit a $2 trillion market cap in November, 2021. The company had a hugely successful third quarter that year, with profits rising to 69 percent, according to tech website Verge.

On the eve of Republic Day, Sundar Pichai was named as one of the recipients of Padma Bhushan -- India's third highest civilian honour. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella joined him as an honoree in the “trade and industry” category.

In March 2022, Google acquired Raxium, a startup working to develop microLED display technologies for augmented reality headsets and wearables.

"Raxium has spent five years creating miniaturized, cost-effective and energy efficient high-resolution displays that have laid the foundation for future display technologies," Google had said while announcing the deal. "Raxium’s technical expertise in this area will play a key role as we continue to invest in our hardware efforts."

As an answer to Google's Apple Maps, Google in May unveiled its plans to combine street view and aerial imagery using AI to offer viewers a more immersive view of the world.

The company announced that updates providing enhanced viewing would come to Google Maps soon.

"Our investments in AI have supercharged the ability to bring you the most helpful information about the real world," Google had said.

Pichai had told Bloomberg last year that the concept of immersive computing excited him. "This doesn’t belong to any company. This is the evolution of the internet," he had said.

Pichai had said in Google's earnings conference call in February, 2022 that the company was certainly looking at blockchain technology.

"It’s such an interesting and powerful technology with broad applications," he had said. “Any time there is innovation, I find it exciting, I think it’s something we want to support the best we can."