Google Cloud Hires Tech Superstar Francis DeSouza As New COO

'It’s an especially exciting time at Google Cloud as organizations are increasingly looking to leverage the transformative power of GenAI to deliver remarkable outcomes,' said Google Cloud’s new COO Francis deSouza today.

Google Cloud has hired longtime top tech executive Francis deSouza as its new chief operating officer.

“It’s an especially exciting time at Google Cloud as organizations are increasingly looking to leverage the transformative power of GenAI to deliver remarkable outcomes,” said deSouza in a LinkedIn post today announcing his new role as COO of Google Cloud. His post has already garnered over 700 comments by Wednesday morning.

Throughout deSouza’s nearly four-decade IT career, he’s held top positions including president of product and services for cybersecurity standout Symantec, and more recently CEO of biotechnology firm Illumina.

In 2023, DeSouza co-founded AI research firm Synth Labs. His AI startup received an undisclosed amount of funding last year led by Microsoft’s venture capital fund, M12, and Eric Schmidt's First Spark Ventures.

[Related: Microsoft VP Of Silicon Engineering Jumps To Google Cloud To Head Chip Technology And Manufacturing]

DeSouza was the CEO and co-founder of two companies that were eventually acquired by tech giants Microsoft and Symantec.

His instant messaging security company, IMlogic, was purchased by Symantec in 2006, while deSouza’s messaging software firm Flash Communications was acquired by Microsoft in 1998. He could not be reached for comment by press time.

It is key to note that deSouza is also an avid tech investor as well as being on several advisory boards.

He is currently an advisor for 4baseCare, Deel and Moonwalk Biosciences, while he’s also an investor in Moonhub and Essential AI.

DeSouza is a former board member of The Walt Disney Company and former board director for Citrix.

Google’s New COO Touts 35 Precent Sales Growth

DeSouza is joining the Mountain View, Calif.-based cloud computing giant as Google Cloud leans heavily into artificial intelligence and generative AI across its portfolio.

DeSouza touted his new company’s revenue growth rate for Google’s most recent third quarter 2024.

“Google Cloud’s $11.4 billion in Q3 revenue—an incredible 35 percent year-over-year increase—is a testament to the opportunity, and the strength of Google Cloud’s technology leadership and powerful AI portfolio,” said DeSouza. “Exciting times ahead!”

Google Cloud’s 35 percent year-over-year sales growth represented a much higher growth rate compared to its main competitors Microsoft and AWS.

In the third quarter of 2024, AWS increased sales by 19 percent year over year to $27.5 billion, while Microsoft’s cloud revenue increased 20 percent year over year to $24.1 billion.

Google Cloud currently owns 12 percent share of the global enterprise cloud infrastructure services market. The company only trails AWS who owns 31 percent global market share and Microsoft at 20 percent share, according to data from Synergy Research Group.