Ruth Porat

Over her decade-plus at Google and Alphabet, Ruth Porat has always been enormously consequential. In the past few years, she has begun to wield a new kind of influence. Today, she is a key decision-maker for the physical infrastructure of the AI economy and the face of Alphabet’s relationships with governments and communities in the AI era. The competitiveness of Gemini and NotebookLM depends on Porat. As president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, she is the executive behind the firm’s most consequential capital commitments, including Google's $91.4 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, and a staggering $180 billion to $190 billion projected for 2026, the largest infrastructure bet in the company’s history. Porat has logged visits with heads of state and ministers across Europe, Asia, and the U.S., driving investments totaling tens of billions of dollars, often with workforce and energy affordability programs embedded into the deals that add energy capacity. In March 2026, she signed Google’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge at the White House, codifying a commitment to responsible energy growth as AI’s power demands accelerate. Her influence continues to be recognized: She delivered the private sector keynote at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, a platform rarely extended to a corporate executive.