The AI race is back on

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Google and Meta are challenging Anthropic and OpenAI at the AI frontier.

Google and Meta are challenging Anthropic and OpenAI at the AI frontier.

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Last week, Anthropic and OpenAI looked like they had the AI race to themselves, pulling ahead with increasingly powerful models that left their rivals in the dust. Google seemed hopelessly far behind, while Meta, despite spending billions to revive its floundering AI ambitions, had yet to establish itself as a serious contender. Even the latest models coming out of China, impressive as they were, appeared to be playing catch-up.

Then, in the space of a few days, everything changed. Google and Meta both unveiled frontier models they claim can go toe to toe with the best from OpenAI and Anthropic. Suddenly, the race is back on — and it’s anyone’s game.

Until this week, Google looked like it had permanently lost its place among the AI front-runners. Since releasing Gemini 3 late last year, the tech giant had delivered little more than incremental improvements. Gemini 3 was formidable when it launched, but its lead was fleeting, and it struggled to keep up with later offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic, or even some of the open-weight models emerging from China.

A series of internal shake-ups only added to the sense that Google was retreating from the AI frontier. Veteran executive Jeff Dean departed the company with a number of other AI researchers to launch a new startup. Demis Hassabis, the Nobel laureate who spent years at the helm of Google’s AI powerhouse DeepMind, stepped back from day-to-day leadership. Other AI-related teams were moved out of DeepMind and into Google proper. Together, the changes signaled a broader shift in Google’s AI center of gravity, moving away from London and toward California, fueling speculation the tech giant was beg

Then, on Tuesday, Google upended that narrative with the release of Gemini 4 Argon, a new frontier model the company claims matches or beats flagship offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic on numerous benchmarks, whatever value benchmarks are still worth. What’s more, Google has priced Argon aggressively: Per token, it’s undercutting its rivals by as much as 80 percent during its introductory period, and is still significantly cheaper once that promotion ends.