Sridhar Ramaswamy

Sridhar Ramaswamy
Ramaswamy in 2020
Sridhar Ramaswamy
Born	1967
Birthplace	Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India
Nationality	American
Occupation	Technology executive, computer scientist
Title	CEO of Snowflake Inc.
Known for	CEO of Snowflake Inc., co-founding Neeva, leading Google's advertising business
Education	Brown University (MS, PhD)
Children	2

Sridhar Ramaswamy (born 1967) is an Indian-American computer scientist and technology executive who has served as the chief executive officer of Snowflake Inc., a cloud-based data-warehousing company, since February 2024. Before leading Snowflake, Ramaswamy spent over 15 years at Google, where he rose to become the senior vice president overseeing the company's massive advertising business—a division that generated tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue and formed the financial backbone of one of the world's most valuable corporations. After departing Google in 2018, he joined the venture capital firm Greylock Partners before co-founding Neeva, a startup that sought to build a privacy-focused, ad-free search engine. When Snowflake acquired Neeva in 2023, Ramaswamy joined Snowflake's leadership team and was subsequently appointed CEO. His career has spanned foundational research in database theory, the construction of the modern digital advertising ecosystem, and leadership in the rapidly evolving fields of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Born in Tiruchirappalli, India, Ramaswamy earned his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and his doctorate from Brown University.

Early Life

Sridhar Ramaswamy was born in 1967 in Tiruchirappalli, a city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Details about his early family life and upbringing remain largely undocumented in public sources. He pursued his undergraduate education in India before moving to the United States for graduate studies, a path followed by many Indian-born technologists of his generation who went on to assume prominent roles in Silicon Valley.

Education

Ramaswamy earned a Bachelor of Technology (BTech) degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), one of India's premier engineering institutions. He subsequently moved to the United States to attend Brown University, where he earned both a Master of Science (MS) and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in computer science. His doctoral dissertation, completed in 1995, was titled Indexing for Data Models with Classes and Constraints and was supervised by Professor Paris Kanellakis, a noted computer scientist specializing in database theory and computational complexity. The dissertation addressed indexing techniques for advanced data models, a topic with implications for database management systems and information retrieval. Ramaswamy's academic training in database systems and theoretical computer science provided the technical foundation for his subsequent career in the technology industry.

Career

Google (2003–2018)

Ramaswamy joined Google in 2003 and spent more than 15 years at the company, rising through its engineering and product ranks to become one of its most senior executives. He eventually assumed the role of senior vice president of advertising and commerce, overseeing the division that generated the vast majority of Google's revenue.

By 2015, the advertising business under Ramaswamy's leadership was generating approximately $60 billion in annual revenue, making it one of the largest digital advertising operations in the world. In this capacity, he oversaw products including Google Ads (formerly AdWords), AdSense, and DoubleClick, as well as the company's broader commerce initiatives. In media appearances and industry events, Ramaswamy articulated Google's advertising strategy, including the company's approach to video advertising and its competitive positioning relative to rivals such as Facebook and Amazon.

In a 2015 interview with Recode, Ramaswamy discussed Google's commerce strategy, stating that the company did not intend to become a retailer itself but rather sought to connect consumers with merchants through its advertising and search platforms. His tenure at Google was chronicled by technology publication The Information, which detailed his ascent within the company's hierarchy.

Ramaswamy departed Google in October 2018 and joined Greylock Partners, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm, as a venture partner. His departure was part of a broader reshuffling of Google's advertising leadership. At Greylock, Ramaswamy evaluated investment opportunities in technology startups, a role that also provided him with the perspective and connections that would inform his next venture.

Neeva (2019–2023)

In 2019, Ramaswamy co-founded Neeva, a startup that aimed to create a subscription-based, ad-free search engine focused on user privacy. The venture was notable given Ramaswamy's background: having spent years building and overseeing one of the world's largest advertising businesses, he was now explicitly challenging the ad-supported model that had defined his career at Google.

The founding of Neeva attracted considerable attention from technology journalists and industry observers. A June 2020 profile in The New York Times highlighted the apparent contradiction of a former Google advertising chief launching a product designed to eliminate ads from the search experience. In a 2021 interview with Forbes, Ramaswamy discussed his motivations for founding Neeva, describing his desire to build a search product that served users rather than advertisers.

Neeva launched its search product as a subscription service, charging users a monthly fee in exchange for search results free from advertisements and tracking. The company also incorporated artificial intelligence capabilities into its search technology. In a 2022 interview with the BBC, Ramaswamy discussed Neeva's approach to search and its efforts to differentiate from Google's dominant market position.

Despite attracting venture capital funding and positive media coverage, Neeva faced challenges in converting users to a paid search model in a market where free, ad-supported search engines were entrenched. In 2023, the company pivoted away from its consumer search product toward enterprise applications. Shortly afterward, Snowflake Inc. acquired Neeva, bringing Ramaswamy and his team into the cloud data company.

Snowflake Inc. (2023–present)

Following Snowflake's acquisition of Neeva in 2023, Ramaswamy joined the company's executive leadership. On February 28, 2024, Snowflake announced that longtime CEO Frank Slootman would retire and that Ramaswamy would succeed him as chief executive officer, effective immediately. The announcement initially caused Snowflake's stock to fall approximately 20 percent, reflecting investor uncertainty about the leadership transition and the company's revised financial guidance issued alongside the announcement.

As CEO, Ramaswamy has oriented Snowflake's strategy around artificial intelligence and data analytics, positioning the company as a platform for enterprises to manage and derive insights from their data using AI tools. In a July 2025 interview with Business Insider, Ramaswamy outlined his vision for enhancing the company's efficiency and profitability while focusing on AI capabilities and recruiting early-career talent.

Under Ramaswamy's leadership, Snowflake has pursued partnerships with major AI companies. In early 2026, the company announced a $200 million deal with OpenAI, signaling deeper integration between Snowflake's data platform and leading AI model providers.

Ramaswamy has been vocal about the competitive dynamics of the AI era for enterprise software companies. In a February 2026 interview with Business Insider, he warned that software companies risk becoming a "dumb data pipe" to AI models if they fail to add value beyond data storage and transfer. He stated that "the big model makers want to create a world in which all of the data for all of the enterprises is easily available to them," emphasizing that Snowflake's strategy centers on ensuring that enterprises retain control over their data while leveraging AI.

In a December 2025 article for Fortune, Ramaswamy offered predictions for the technology industry in 2026, suggesting that Big Tech's grip on AI would loosen as the technology matures and more companies develop competitive offerings.

In February 2026, speaking at an industry event, Ramaswamy discussed the growth of Snowflake's partner ecosystem and articulated his approach to AI's role in the company's business model. "I'm not in the business of selling AI. I'm in the business of creating value," he told CRN.

Management Philosophy

In interviews, Ramaswamy has shared aspects of his management and hiring approach. In a January 2026 article in Business Insider, he described the interview question he uses to move candidates away from rehearsed answers, seeking to identify traits he values in potential employees. In a December 2025 article, he discussed his approach to meetings, sharing four rules he applies to make meetings more effective. While acknowledging that "meetings are like bureaucracies," he said he depends on them as a decision-making tool.

Personal Life

Ramaswamy has two children. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Details about his personal life beyond these facts are not extensively documented in public sources. Ramaswamy holds both Indian and American citizenship, having emigrated from India to the United States for his graduate studies and subsequently building his career in Silicon Valley.

Academic Work

Ramaswamy's doctoral dissertation at Brown University, Indexing for Data Models with Classes and Constraints (1995), was supervised by Paris Kanellakis, a professor known for his contributions to database theory, logic in computer science, and computational complexity. Kanellakis died in a plane crash in December 1995, the same year Ramaswamy completed his doctorate. The dissertation examined indexing methods applicable to data models incorporating classes and constraints, contributing to the theoretical understanding of database management systems.

Legacy

Ramaswamy's career trajectory—from academic computer science researcher to leader of Google's advertising empire, to founder of a privacy-focused search engine, to CEO of a major cloud data company—reflects the evolving priorities and tensions within the technology industry. His time at Google coincided with the period during which digital advertising became the dominant business model for internet companies, a transformation he helped architect. His subsequent founding of Neeva represented an explicit acknowledgment of the costs associated with ad-supported business models, particularly with respect to user privacy and the quality of search results.

As CEO of Snowflake, Ramaswamy is positioned at the intersection of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, two fields that are reshaping enterprise technology. His public statements about the risks of enterprise software companies becoming mere "data pipes" for AI model providers have contributed to industry discourse about how companies should navigate the AI era. The $200 million partnership with OpenAI under his leadership represents one of the more significant enterprise AI partnerships to date.

His academic background in database theory, combined with his operational experience at Google and as a startup founder, provides him with an unusual breadth of perspective for a technology CEO. Whether at Google managing a $60 billion advertising business, at Neeva attempting to reimagine search, or at Snowflake navigating the AI transformation of enterprise software, Ramaswamy has consistently operated at the center of significant shifts in the technology industry.