For nearly three years, Google was written off.
Ever since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, analysts, former insiders, and tech commentators have repeatedly declared that Google had lost its edge in artificial intelligence. Search was “doomed,” innovation was “too slow,” and OpenAI was supposedly running away with the future.
That narrative has now collapsed.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has staged one of the most dramatic AI comebacks in recent market history — adding nearly $1 trillion in market capitalisation since mid-October and putting the company on a path toward a $4 trillion valuation. Far from falling behind, Google is now forcing rivals to rethink their assumptions about who really controls the AI stack.
From AI Underdog to Market Leader — Almost Overnight
The turning point came with the release of Gemini 3, Google’s latest large language model, alongside growing evidence that the company’s long-term hardware strategy is finally paying off.
Since Gemini 3’s debut, Alphabet’s stock has surged, fueled by renewed investor confidence and reports of potential hardware alliances with major tech players, including Meta. The rally has not only reshaped Alphabet’s trajectory but also sent shockwaves across the AI ecosystem.
Investors who once doubted Google’s ability to compete are now reassessing what they may have underestimated: Google never left the race — it was building quietly, end to end.
Wall Street’s Loudest Vote of Confidence
Perhaps the strongest validation came from Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffett’s investment firm disclosed a $4.9 billion stake in Alphabet, a move widely seen as a powerful endorsement of Google’s long-term AI strategy.
Markets responded immediately.
At the same time, competitors began to feel pressure. Shares of SoftBank Group, a key OpenAI backer, slid to a two-month low, while Nvidia, long viewed as the undisputed king of AI hardware, saw its stock drop sharply — wiping out over $240 billion in market value amid concerns that Google’s in-house chips could become a serious alternative.
The balance of power is shifting.
Google’s Secret Weapon: A Full-Stack AI Strategy
While much of the AI spotlight focused on flashy chatbots, Google was playing a different game. CEO Sundar Pichai has consistently emphasized a “full-stack” approach to AI — one that few competitors can match.
Unlike OpenAI, which relies heavily on external partners for computing power, Google controls nearly every layer of its AI ecosystem:
Consumer platforms like Search, YouTube, Gmail, and Android
Vast proprietary data sets
Global cloud infrastructure
Custom-built AI chips
Cutting-edge foundation models like Gemini
This vertical integration gives Google a structural advantage that analysts largely ignored.
As one industry analyst put it, Google wasn’t asleep — it was a “sleeping giant” preparing to wake up.
The Hardware Bet That’s Finally Paying Off
Google’s investment in Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) dates back more than a decade. For years, these custom chips powered Google’s internal workloads while Nvidia dominated the external market.
That is changing fast.
In October, Anthropic announced a deal reportedly worth tens of billions of dollars to use up to one million Google TPUs. Soon after, reports surfaced that Meta Platforms is in discussions to deploy Google’s chips in its data centres by 2027.
While Google has declined to confirm specific partnerships, it has acknowledged accelerating demand for its custom silicon — a signal that its hardware strategy is no longer just defensive, but commercially competitive.
For the first time, Nvidia’s dominance looks contestable.
Why Gemini 3 Changes the Competitive Equation
Gemini 3 is not just another chatbot upgrade. It represents Google’s most serious attempt yet to integrate AI deeply across productivity, enterprise workflows, and creative tasks.
The model shows major improvements in:
Software development and code generation
Email organisation and summarisation
Business document analysis
Multimodal responses combining text and visuals
Unlike standalone AI tools, Gemini is designed to plug directly into Google’s existing ecosystem — from Workspace to Search — giving it an instant distribution advantage measured in billions of users.
Market strategists now see Gemini as a genuine threat to ChatGPT’s momentum, especially in enterprise and productivity use cases.
Why the “Google Is Dead” Narrative Fell Apart
The idea that Google had lost the AI race was built on a flawed assumption: that speed alone determines leadership. In reality, scale, infrastructure, and integration matter just as much.
Google spent years absorbing criticism while quietly strengthening the foundations others depend on — data centres, silicon, global platforms, and AI research. When the pieces finally aligned, the impact was explosive.
As one market strategist noted, a meaningful shift toward Gemini could ripple through the entire AI economy, raising uncomfortable questions for companies tied to OpenAI’s computing costs and cloud dependencies.
The Bottom Line: Google Was Never Out — Just Underrated
The exaggerated claims of Google’s decline now look premature at best, misguided at worst. Alphabet’s resurgence shows that AI leadership is not about winning headlines — it’s about owning the stack.
With Gemini 3, growing chip partnerships, and renewed investor confidence, Google is no longer chasing the AI future. It is shaping it.
And for analysts who once predicted Google’s downfall, this comeback serves as a reminder: in tech, the quiet builders often have the last word.
