Since mid-October, shares of Google parent Alphabet have rocketed, adding almost US$1 trillion in market value. Armed with its two trump cards—Gemini 3 and its home-grown TPU chips—it has not only chilled OpenAI but also begun to rattle Nvidia’s foundations.
Neil Shah, analyst and co-founder of global tech-market research house Counterpoint Research, exclaimed, “This is a sleeping giant that is now fully awake!”
In the second half of the AI race, the most formidable “full-stack” player has finally come back to life.
Gemini 3: the soul of Google’s comeback
The biggest hero of Google’s turnaround is its new multi-purpose AI model, Gemini 3.
The moment it dropped, Gemini 3 earned five-star reviews across the industry for its powerhouse reasoning, elite coding talent and uncanny ability to nail niche tasks that used to stump chatbots—such as generating images with deliberately misspelled overlaid text.
This is no mere version bump; it is a decisive counter-attack that silences talk of Google “falling behind” and rebuts the pessimists who claim AI scaling laws are slowing.
Even OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy gave it a public thumbs-up, calling Gemini 3 “clearly a tier-1 large language model.”
Chip fire-power: staring down Nvidia, with Meta now asking for a hug
Beyond the model itself, Google’s secret weapon is its silicon.
After more than a decade of quiet toil, Google’s Tensor Processing Units—originally built to speed up search—have evolved into one of the few viable alternatives to Nvidia’s dominant GPUs.
For years Google was the TPU’s only real customer; that is changing fast.
Meta is reportedly planning to deploy Google chips in its own data-centres starting in 2027. When Meta wants to “hug your thigh,” markets listen: Alphabet’s stock leapt 3.22 % in a single session, pushing its value toward US$4 trillion, while Nvidia’s shares slid 5.51 %, wiping out US$243 billion in market cap.
Even SoftBank—OpenAI’s biggest backer—saw its stock hit a two-month low on Gemini fears.
Analysts concede that while many firms have failed at custom silicon, “Google can clearly add this capability to its résumé.”
The full-stack moat: data, cash and vertical integration
Why can Google pull off a reversal that rivals cannot?
Because it owns the stack end-to-end—something OpenAI simply can’t buy.
Data goldmine: search indexes, Android phones and YouTube supply an endless, proprietary training feed.
Cash gusher: search ads, up 15 % last quarter, bankroll the AI arms race.
Full-stack control:
– Chips (TPU) optimised for its own frameworks;
– Cloud platform that rents that silicon to the world;
– Software models (Gemini) setting performance benchmarks;
– Consumer apps (Nano Banana, etc.) that close the feedback loop.
The result: more control, lower unit cost, no need to pay “landlord” rent to a patchwork of suppliers.
Rising from ashes: strategic reset and antitrust reprieve
The comeback was no accident.
In early 2023 Google folded its AI efforts under DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. After an early stumble with an image-generation fiasco, Hassabis locked the team’s sights on foundation models that could slug it out with GPT-4 and beyond. His reputation—and generous stock packages—kept key engineers from jumping ship for million-dollar offers elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Google dodged the worst outcome in the U.S. antitrust case; fears of a forced break-up faded as regulators acknowledged the fresh threat posed by AI upstarts.
Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving unit, is simultaneously expanding into new cities and adding freeway rides—another dividend from Google’s long-range R&D wallet.
Looking ahead: aiming for centre stage in AI’s deep space
So forget the obituaries—Google is very much alive.
As Neil Shah puts it, “Google has arguably always been the dark horse in this AI race. It’s a sleeping giant that is now fully awake.”
Even Warren Buffett—long wary of tech bets—opened a US$4.3 billion position in Alphabet last quarter, a vote of confidence that speaks louder than any headline.
In the race to AI’s outer limits, Google is done warming the bench—it wants the captain’s armband.