Can Google's New AI Really Dethrone ChatGPT?

Google just rolled out Gemini 3 and it’s swinging hard at OpenAI. The new model flexes “PhD-level reasoning,” multi-step task automation, and a less kiss-ass approach to answers—basically calling out ChatGPT for being too flattery-focused.

Here’s the reality check though: ChatGPT has 700 million weekly users vs Gemini’s 650 million monthly actives. That’s a massive gap. But here’s what matters more—Google isn’t betting everything on Gemini winning a chatbot popularity contest.

The real play? Google’s AI Overview in Search already hits 2 billion monthly users, and 70% of Cloud customers use Gemini. That’s ecosystem lock-in. Google Cloud revenue jumped 34% to $15.1B, crushing analyst expectations. Ad revenue still ripped 12.6% to $74.1B.

Warren Buffett just dumped $4B into Alphabet for a reason. The stock trades at 28x earnings—cheaper than the S&P 500 average of 31—while the company stacks both cloud growth and ad dominance.

Gemini 3 probably won’t “beat” ChatGPT in raw user numbers. But Alphabet’s building an AI moat that makes direct comparison kinda miss the point.