Google goes from laggard to leader as it pulls ahead of OpenAI with stellar AI growth

Alphabet is taking on OpenAI with a gusto that underscores Wall Street’s perception that ⁠the Google parent is the leader in AI, a turn of events from a year ago when investors thought it was badly lagging behind rivals and punished its stock.

That showed in the confident tone executives struck on the post-earnings call, the first since Alphabet released the Gemini 3 model.

But its shares fell 3% on Wednesday after the company said it would spend up to $185 billion this year, deepening investor scrutiny as ‌the expenditure potentially more ‌than doubles from 2025 and eclipses rivals Microsoft, Meta and Amazon.