Google запустил обучение Gemini 4, Alphabet поднял прогноз инвестиций до $205 млрд

Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $205 billion and launched training of a new foundation model, Gemini 4. CEO Sundar Pichai said Google's next leap in artificial intelligence depends on building "much larger foundation models."

How much will Alphabet invest in 2026

Alphabet raised the upper end of its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $205 billion, explaining the revision by saying demand for cloud and AI capacity continues to outpace the company's spending. Most of this money goes into data centers, accelerators, and the infrastructure needed to train large models.

The cloud division remains the fastest-growing asset: according to Alphabet's earnings report, Google Cloud revenue grew 82% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026. The company names demand for cloud and AI computing as the main reason the previous investment plan had to be increased.

• 2026 capex forecast — up to $205 billion
• Google Cloud growth in Q2 2026 — 82% year-over-year
• Reason for rising investment — demand outpacing the company's spending
• Training launched for the new Gemini 4 model
• Investment priority — data centers and compute for model training

Why Google needs a larger foundation model

Google needs a significantly more powerful foundation model to make its next leap in AI — that's how Sundar Pichai describes the company's strategy. By his logic, the capabilities of Gemini's applied products — the assistant, search, developer tools — are constrained by the size and quality of the foundation model they run on.

The company has already moved from statements to action: a large-scale training run has begun for Gemini 4, the successor to the current generation of Gemini. Training models of this size requires enormous computing resources — and this is exactly how Alphabet explains its record capex forecast for 2026.

"The next leap depends on building much larger foundation models," —

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google.

What's behind the bet on scale

The bet on scale means Google is tying Gemini's progress not so much to targeted improvements as to the growth of the foundation model itself and the infrastructure behind it. The $205 billion forecast for 2026 is a direct consequence of this approach: the larger the model, the more chips, electricity, and data centers are needed. Alphabet openly acknowledges that demand is outpacing investment, meaning the forecast may not turn out to be a ceiling for 2026.

For the market, this is a signal: the AI lab race increasingly hinges on capital. Only a handful of companies can afford training runs costing billions of dollars and capital expenditures in the hundreds of billions, and Alphabet clearly intends to remain among them.

What it means

Google is betting on scale: the company ties Gemini's future to a larger foundation model and infrastructure worth hundreds of billions of dollars, not just cosmetic updates. If the bet pays off, Gemini 4 will become Google's main argument in the competition with OpenAI and Anthropic, and the bill for this race is already measured at $205 billion in annual investment.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gemini 4?

Gemini 4 is Google's next foundation model and the successor to the current generation of Gemini. According to Sundar Pichai, the company has already launched its training run; Google has not named an exact release date.

How much will Alphabet spend on AI in 2026?

Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $205 billion. The company explains the revision by saying demand for cloud and AI infrastructure is outpacing its current spending, and Google Cloud grew 82% in the second quarter of 2026.