Who Is Sridhar Vembu? Zoho Founder Doubles Down On East India Company Comparison For Big Tech, Says ‘Bigger Than …’

Sridhar Vembu: Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has stirred discussion on social media after comparing modern technology giants to the historic East India Company. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Vembu wrote, “Big tech is bigger than most sovereign nations. ‘East India Company’ is the way to think about them.”

While he did not mention any specific company, his remark was in response to a post highlighting that Google recently raised $32 billion in debt in a single day, an amount comparable to what a country like India might raise over several months. The post also noted that Google issued a 100-year bond worth $1 billion, exceeding India’s longest sovereign bond tenure of 40 years.

The bond issuance reportedly marked the first time since IBM in 1996 that a technology company attempted a century bond.

Who Is Sridhar Vembu?

Sridhar Vembu is the founder and chief scientist of Zoho Corporation, a global software company known for its enterprise cloud applications. An IIT Madras alumnus with a PhD from Princeton University, Vembu is known for advocating rural development, decentralised business models, and India-based innovation. He stepped down as Zoho’s CEO in 2023 to focus on research and development initiatives within the company.

Vembu’s post triggered a wave of reactions online. Some users supported the comparison, arguing that while the East India Company once controlled trade routes, big tech companies now control “data routes,” making businesses dependent on their infrastructure.

Why Vembu Drew The East India Company Comparison

The comparison centres on the growing financial and structural power of large technology corporations. The post Vembu responded to argued that major tech firms now operate at a scale similar to sovereign governments, both in terms of fundraising capacity and long-term financial planning.

The East India Company, a British trading corporation, gradually expanded into a political and economic force that controlled vast territories and trade routes. Vembu’s analogy appears to suggest that today’s tech giants command similar influence, though in digital infrastructure and capital markets rather than physical territory.

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