Google CEO Sundar Pichai calls Trump government’s remedies ‘too extreme’: ‘The proposal on data sharing is…’

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, taking the stand on Wednesday (April 30) in the antitrust trial, argued that a proposal by the US Department of Justice to mandate the sharing of Google’s search data with competitors will effectively amount to a “de facto” divestiture of the company’s core search engine. He termed the remedies too extreme and asserted that they will undermine Google's ability to effectively compete within the market.
As per a report by Bloomberg, Pichai said during his testimony before the federal court in Washington that requiring Google to share both its vast trove of search data and the intricate algorithms governing how it ranks results would enable rivals to reverse engineer “every aspect of our technology.”
“The proposal on data sharing is so far reaching, so extraordinary," Pichai stated, characterising it as feeling like a “de facto divestiture of search” and the entirety of Google's intellectual property as well as technological advancements accumulated over 25 years of intensive research and development.
“It would be trivial to reverse engineer and effectively build Google search from the outside," he said, adding that this would make it “unviable to invest in R&D the way we have for the past two decades.”
He also warned that the combination of these proposed measures would “make it unviable to continue to invest in” crucial research and development efforts, predicting “many unintended consequences” across the tech landscape.

The Google CEO was called to the stand as part of the ongoing three-week trial aimed at determining the appropriate measures to restore competition in the online search market. This phase of the trial follows Judge Amit Mehta's ruling last year, which concluded that the tech giant had illegally maintained a monopoly in this critical sector.
The government’s proposed remedies extend beyond data sharing, also including a demand for Google to divest its widely used Chrome browser, license specific search data to competitors, and cease the practice of paying for exclusive default placements on other apps and devices.
Notably, the DOJ has also urged Judge Mehta to extend these restrictions to Google’s AI products, including its AI assistant Gemini, arguing that these innovations have been unfairly bolstered by the company’s illegal dominance in search.
Google has strongly countered the government’s arguments, asserting that the proposed remedies would ultimately harm American consumers and the broader US economy, while simultaneously weakening the nation's technological leadership on the global stage.