Eric Schmidt

As CEO and later Chairman of Google from 2001 to 2017, Eric Schmidt helped guide a young search company into one of the most consequential technology businesses in history. Under his leadership, alongside founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google scaled its infrastructure globally, expanded far beyond search, and built the operational discipline that allowed innovation to flourish at extraordinary speed.

Today, as Executive Chairman and CEO of Relativity Space, Schmidt is focused on the next frontier — space, advanced manufacturing, and the technologies that will define the coming decades. He also chairs the Special Competitive Studies Project, an initiative he founded to strengthen long-term AI and technological competitiveness in national security, the economy, and society. In parallel, Eric Schmidt serves on major scientific and medical boards including The Broad Institute and The Mayo Clinic, reflecting his belief that technological progress must serve humanity.

Eric Schmidt chaired the US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, led the Department of Defense’s Innovation Board, and served on NASA’s National Space Council User Advisory Group. He has advised presidents, defence leaders and global institutions on how emerging technologies will reshape power, productivity and security. He was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service and, in 2024, received an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) for services to philanthropy.

Schmidt speaks candidly about the global AI race between the United States and China, the strategic choices facing Europe, the capital and energy demands of large-scale AI systems, and the realities behind the so-called “San Francisco consensus” on artificial general intelligence. He is both optimistic and cautious: confident that AI will generate economic growth and new jobs, yet clear-eyed about the risks of autonomous systems and the need to preserve human agency.

An accomplished author, Eric Schmidt’s books — including The New Digital Age, How Google Works, Trillion Dollar Coach, The Age of AI, and his most recent New York Times bestseller Genesis explore leadership, technological transformation and the philosophical questions raised by intelligent machines.