- Google’s recent earnings and strategic AI investments — including plans to double capital expenditure to around $175‑$185 billion — signal confidence in its AI leadership momentum.
- The company’s Gemini AI model now reaches hundreds of millions of users and continues to be embedded across Google services, challenging OpenAI’s early lead.
What happened
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has accelerated its march into the field of AI. Some observers believe that it may surpass OpenAI in the global AI competition. In the latest financial report, Google announced a plan to significantly increase its CAPEX in 2026 – it is expected that the CAPEX will double in 2026, reaching between $175billion and $185billion, and about $91billion in 2025 – mainly to support its AI and cloud infrastructure.
Google’s Gemini AI model is the cornerstone of its generative AI strategy. Currently, there are more than 750million monthly active users, and it has been embedded in Google search and enterprise products. Although ChatGPT of OpenAI still maintains strong user participation, the rapid growth of Google AI technology and its deep integration in consumer and enterprise services have changed the pattern of leaders in this field.
The cloud revenue of alphabet also increased by 48%, highlighting the growing market demand for AI-driven enterprise services. At the same time, the company also strengthened cooperation with external partners, indicating that its influence has exceeded its own platform.
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Why it’s important
The evolving competitive dynamics between Google and OpenAI matter because they reflect broader shifts in how artificial intelligence technologies are developed, scaled and monetised. Google’s scale — built on decades of infrastructure investment, a massive user base and integrated products — gives it structural advantages in deploying AI features widely and consistently.
Moreover, Alphabet’s decision to significantly boost capital expenditure signals that leading tech companies are increasingly making AI infrastructure and compute capacity core strategic priorities, not just experimental initiatives. These infrastructure commitments will shape who controls the platforms that power next‑generation applications across search, cloud computing and enterprise AI workloads.
If Google’s investments continue to deliver results, they may recalibrate investor and industry expectations about which companies define the future of AI — especially as AI models become more deeply embedded in everyday technology and business systems.
