Vishal Sikka is a computer scientist and executive who served as SAP’s first chief technology officer and as chief executive of Infosys. He founded the AI company Vianai in 2019 and, in 2026, Hang Ten Systems, which builds and modernizes enterprise software (Wikipedia).
Growing Up in Vadodara
He was born in 1967 in Shajapur, Madhya Pradesh, India, to a father who was an officer in the Indian Railways and a mother who was a teacher. His family moved to Vadodara, in Gujarat, when he was six. He began a computer engineering degree at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, then left to study at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
Studying AI at Stanford
He completed a Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford University in 1996 with a dissertation titled Integrating Specialized Procedures into Proof Systems, advised by Michael Genesereth. Marvin Minsky wrote a recommendation letter for his admission, and John McCarthy was one of his professors.
Leading SAP and Infosys
After a short period at Xerox research labs and two startups, iBrain and Bodha.com, he joined SAP in 2002 to run its advanced technology group. SAP named him its first chief technology officer in April 2007. Infosys named him chief executive and managing director in June 2014, and he resigned from that role in August 2017.
Founding Hang Ten Systems
In May 2026 he founded Hang Ten Systems in Palo Alto, California, to advise very large companies on AI strategy and build and modernize their software with small teams and an agentic platform called Hobie (TechCrunch). Read our review of Hang Ten Systems.
“Enterprises still need trusted partners who are independent of the underlying platform and who work with and solely in the interest of the enterprise.”