Indian American executives Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella have secured the top two positions on the HSBC Hurun Global Indians List 2026, which recognizes business leaders of Indian origin heading some of the world’s most valuable companies headquartered outside India.
Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, ranked first, followed by Microsoft Chairman and CEO Nadella. Sanjay Mehrotra, chairman, president and CEO of Micron Technology, took third place, while YouTube CEO Neal Mohan and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian completed the top five.
The five executives lead companies with a combined valuation of $9.1 trillion, representing approximately 61% of the total value of businesses featured in the ranking.
Pichai, who grew up in Chennai, India, is the CEO of Google and its parent company, Alphabet. He joined Google in 2004 and initially worked on product development, contributing to products including Google Toolbar and Chrome. He became Google’s CEO in August 2015 and took on the additional role of Alphabet CEO in December 2019.
Before joining Google, Pichai worked at Applied Materials and McKinsey. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, a master’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Alphabet, which includes Google and its other businesses, was valued at $4.2 trillion in the Hurun report.
Satya Nadella who ranks second, is Originally from Hyderabad, Nadella has led Microsoft as CEO since February 2014 and serves as its chairman. He joined Microsoft in 1992 after working at Sun Microsystems. Before becoming CEO, he led the company’s Cloud and Enterprise group, overseeing its cloud infrastructure and services business.
Nadella earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Microsoft was valued at $2.6 trillion in the 2026 ranking.
Sanjay Mehrotra, chairman, president and CEO of Micron Technology, is ranked third. He joined the semiconductor company in 2017 after co-founding SanDisk in 1988 and serving as its president and CEO from 2011 to 2016. He has more than four decades of experience in the semiconductor memory industry and holds more than 70 patents.
His earlier professional experience includes engineering and leadership positions at Integrated Device Technology, SEEQ Technology and Intel.
Mehrotra earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. Micron was valued at $1.4 trillion, recording a 1,174% increase since the 2024 list, the largest rise among the top five.
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Neal Mohan and Thomas Kurian complete the rankings. Mohan, who became YouTube CEO in 2023, ranked fourth. Before his appointment, he served as the platform’s chief product officer, overseeing product development and areas including streaming, short-form video, subscriptions and creator services.
Earlier in his career, Mohan worked at DoubleClick and Google, where he served as senior vice president of display and video advertising. He holds an electrical engineering degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud since November 2018, ranked fifth. Before joining Google, he spent 22 years at Oracle, where he most recently served as president of product development. He also previously worked at McKinsey. Kurian earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
The 2026 list features 236 individuals across 200 companies, with a combined valuation of $15 trillion, up 53% from $9.9 trillion in the inaugural 2024 edition. The companies collectively employ 5.3 million people and generate $2.5 trillion in revenue, according to Hurun Research Institute.