Brands
Ola gets Viraj Chouhan to head communications
MUMBAI: Cab hailing service Ola has appointed Viraj Chouhan as its chief communications officer. In his new role, Chouhan would be reporting to co-founder and CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal and will be based in Gurgaon, shuttling between the Millennium City and Bangalore. Anand Subramanian, who was leading the communications mandate thus far, will be moving into a new role within Ola.
Ola Co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal says, “I’m excited to welcome Viraj onboard to lead Ola’s Corporate Communications efforts. I’m looking forward to working with him to share the Ola story and vision across customers, driver partners, employees, and the nation and world at large.”
Viraj Chouhan adds, “I am thrilled to join Ola and be part of this growing internet conglomerate. Ola has not only positively elevated India’s mobility experience, but is also a key driver of our country’s digital economy at large. Ola’s mission of building mobility for a billion people will have a lasting impact on our nation’s development. And that is what makes the Ola story so inspiring and deserving, to be taken to every stakeholder and citizen. I’m eager to join the Ola team in this mission!”
Viraj started his career in communications with Ogilvy＆ Mather Public Relations and went on to become the executive director, Corporate Communications at MTS India. Prior to joining MTS, Viraj headed the brand public relations function within the corporate communications team of Coca-Cola India & South West Asia across multi-country business units (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh) for all the beverage brands. This also included an innings with the Global HQ of The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta. Over the last two decades, Viraj has had extensive exposure across numerous facets of communications and stakeholder engagement right from External and Internal Communications, Brand PR, Crisis communications, Public policy, Investor Relations and Sustainability.
Brands
Google nears Nvidia in race for world’s most valuable company
Market cap gap narrows as Google hits $4.65 trillion, Nvidia at $4.86 trillion.
MUMBAI: In the AI gold rush, even the giants are sprinting and Google is suddenly gaining ground. Google is rapidly closing in on Nvidia in the race to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, with the gap between the two narrowing sharply amid diverging stock momentum. The tech giant’s market capitalisation has surged to around $4.65 trillion, following a more than 140 per cent rise in its share price over the past year.
That rally has added over $2.6 trillion in value in just 12 months, including nearly $900 billion since January alone. Its stock recently hovered at $381.80, slipping marginally by 0.04 per cent, but still reflecting strong upward momentum.
Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hold the top spot with a valuation of approximately $4.86 trillion. The chipmaker crossed the $5 trillion milestone in October last year and peaked at $5.27 trillion on 27 April. However, its shares have largely plateaued over the past six months, rising just 0.2 per cent recently to $199.99.
The contrast in trajectories is striking. While Nvidia has seen relatively flat movement, Google has gained over 36 per cent in the same six-month period. Barron’s estimates suggest that if current trends hold, the valuation gap could shrink to as little as $190 million by the time Nvidia reports its first-quarter earnings on 20 May.
Daily momentum paints a similar picture. Nvidia recorded average daily gains of about 0.66 per cent last month, compared to Google’s stronger 1.42 per cent, an edge that could prove decisive in the short term.
Driving Google’s resurgence is its aggressive push into artificial intelligence across its ecosystem, from search and YouTube to cloud computing. The company has already invested $144 billion in capital expenditure over the past two years and plans to deploy a further $490 billion over the next two.
Its cloud division is also gathering pace. Google Cloud reported an order backlog of nearly $220 billion in the latest quarter, with total backlog touching a record $462 billion, around half of which is expected to be realised within two years. The company’s entry into chip sales is also beginning to factor into its growth narrative.
The last time Google briefly topped the S&P 500 by market value was in February 2016, when it edged past Apple for just two days. This time, the stakes and the numbers are far higher.
At the heart of the contest lies a single force: artificial intelligence. As both companies pour billions into infrastructure, chips and platforms, the leaderboard is no longer just about size, it is about who can scale the future faster.
