Alphabet promised its next-generation AI model would be ready by late June. It’s mid-July, and the model still isn’t here.
A Bloomberg report on July 16 revealed that the launch of Gemini 3.5 Pro has been delayed after developers found the model’s coding performance fell short of expectations during training. The news sent Alphabet’s stock tumbling more than 4% in after-hours trading, adding fresh anxiety ahead of the company’s second-quarter earnings report scheduled for July 22.
The $190 billion question
Here’s the thing about Alphabet’s AI ambitions: they are staggeringly expensive. The company’s capital expenditure guidance for 2026 sits at $180 to $190 billion. For context, that’s roughly double the $91.45 billion it spent in 2025.
CEO Sundar Pichai had previously flagged supply-chain issues, power constraints, and compute limitations as obstacles to scaling Alphabet’s AI infrastructure.
