Google is bullish on the prospect of its more advanced artificial intelligence models coming to smartphones in the next year.
The internet giant expects that its currently available Gemini large language model (LLM), which competes with Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s most powerful GPT-4 AI model, will begin to get embedded into devices starting next year.
Google already offers Gemini Nano, which is the company’s most efficient model for “on-device” AI, across its Pixel devices and on all other capable Android devices.
Brian Rakowski, vice president of product management for Google’s Pixel unit, said that he expects the company’s most advanced large language models, which are currently only accessible via remote data centers via an internet connection, to begin arriving on smartphones directly next year.
“There are smaller versions of our Gemini model on the cloud,” Rakowski told CNBC. “There’s been quite a few breakthroughs to compress these models to get them to run on device.”
“Some have already been proven and some are being explored for some applications. It’d be great having all models on device. It still has wondrous applications.”
“Gemini Nano is performing at a level that our online models were at less than one year ago,” Rakowski added. “You can do a lot with these distilled small versions of the models on device.”
“If you just follow that trajectory, some of that stuff we thought we would have had to go to the cloud for next year will be on device, which is pretty exciting, which is instantaneous without requiring a connection or subscription.”
Large language models, or LLMs, are AI models capable of understanding and generating language in a humanlike way. Gemini Ultra is Google’s top LLM, clocking in at a whopping 1.56 trillion parameters. For comparison, OpenAI’s GPT-4 consists of 1.76 trillion parameters.
Dreaming of a smartphone ‘supercycle’
Smartphone makers have been dreaming of a “supercycle” in their industry, driven by artificial intelligence, after a bruising few years that saw device sales slow aggressively. In 2023, smartphone sales fell to 1.16 billion units, the lowest point for unit shipments in a decade.
Analysts say a supercycle is unlikely to occur within the next few years as there’s not enough going on in the market in terms of novel features and innovation that will convince people holding their aging smartphones to upgrade.
“Unfortunately, we don’t expect that boom,” Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of data and analytics at research firm IDC, told CNBC.
“The last supercycle we saw was between 2010 and 2015, where in five years the market grew five times from around 300 million smartphones per year to 1.5 billion.”
Nonetheless, more and more smartphone makers are making big investments in AI in the hope that it will drive some more excitement around mobile technology.
The likes of Humane, Rabbit, and China’s Meizu are betting on a future for smartphones that doesn’t even look like a traditional smartphone. These are devices that would be smaller and more compact, and that we could interact with via voice activation, like an Amazon Echo speaker but on the go.
Google has been making huge bets on AI in an effort to gain an edge over its rivals like OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed company behind ChatGPT.
Google recently announced a major rebrand of Bard, its ChatGPT alternative, including a fresh app and subscription options. Bard was renamed Gemini, the same name as the suite of AI models that power the chatbot.
Android users can download a dedicated Android app for Gemini, while iPhone users can use Gemini in the Google app on iOS.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the firm’s commitment to AI during the company’s Jan. 30 earnings call. Pichai said he eventually wants to offer an AI agent that can complete more and more tasks on a user’s behalf, including within Google Search, although he said there is “a lot of execution ahead.”
Likewise, chief executives at tech giants from Microsoft to Amazon have underlined their commitment to building AI agents as productivity tools.
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Google on Friday made the latest a splash in the AI talent wars, announcing an agreement to bring in Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence coding startup Windsurf.
As part of the deal, Google will also hire other senior Windsurf research and development employees. Google is not investing in Windsurf, but the search giant will take a nonexclusive license to certain Windsurf technology, according to a person familiar with the matter. Windsurf remains free to license its technology to others.
“We’re excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf’s team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email. “We’re excited to continue bringing the benefits of Gemini to software developers everywhere.”
The deal between Google and Windsurf comes after the AI coding startup had been in talks with OpenAI for a $3 billion acquisition deal, CNBC reported in April. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move ratchets up the talent war in AI particularly among prominent companies. Meta has made lucrative job offers to several employees at OpenAI in recent weeks. Most notably, the Facebook parent added Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead its AI strategy as part of a $14.3 billion investment into his startup.
Douglas Chen, another Windsurf co-founder, will be among those joining Google in the deal, Jeff Wang, the startup’s new interim CEO and its head of business for the past two years, wrote in a post on X.
“Most of Windsurf’s world-class team will continue to build the Windsurf product with the goal of maximizing its impact in the enterprise,” Wang wrote.
Windsurf has become more popular this year as an option for so-called vibe coding, which is the process of using new age AI tools to write code. Developers and non-developers have embraced the concept, leading to more revenue for Windsurf and competitors, such as Cursor, which OpenAI also looked at buying. All the interest has led investors to assign higher valuations to the startups.
This isn’t the first time Google has hired select people out of a startup. It did the same with Character.AI last summer. Amazon and Microsoft have also absorbed AI talent in this fashion, with the Adept and Inflection deals, respectively.
Microsoft is pushing an agent mode in its Visual Studio Code editor for vibe coding. In April, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said AI is composing as much of 30% of his company’s code.
The Verge reported the Google-Windsurf deal earlier on Friday.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, holds a motherboard as he speaks during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, on June 11, 2025.
The sale, which totals 225,000 shares, comes as part of Huang’s previously adopted plan in March to unload up to 6 million shares of Nvidia through the end of the year. He sold his first batch of stock from the agreement in June, equaling about $15 million.
Last year, the tech executive sold about $700 million worth of shares as part of a prearranged plan. Nvidia stock climbed about 1% Friday.
Huang’s net worth has skyrocketed as investors bet on Nvidia’s AI dominance and graphics processing units powering large language models.
The 62-year-old’s wealth has grown by more than a quarter, or about $29 billion, since the start of 2025 alone, based on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. His net worth last stood at $143 billion in the index, putting him neck-and-neck with Berkshire Hathaway‘s Warren Buffett at $144 billion.
Shortly after the market opened Friday, Fortune‘s analysis of net worth had Huang ahead of Buffett, with the Nvidia CEO at $143.7 billion and the Oracle of Omaha at $142.1 billion.
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The company has also achieved its own notable milestones this year, as it prospers off the AI boom.
On Wednesday, the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker became the first company to top a $4 trillion market capitalization, beating out both Microsoft and Apple. The chipmaker closed above that milestone Thursday as CNBC reported that the technology titan met with President Donald Trump.
Brooke Seawell, venture partner at New Enterprise Associates, sold about $24 million worth of Nvidia shares, according to an SEC filing. Seawell has been on the company’s board since 1997, according to the company.
Huang still holds more than 858 million shares of Nvidia, both directly and indirectly, in different partnerships and trusts.
Elon Musk meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House in Washington DC, USA on February 13, 2025.
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Tesla will open a showroom in Mumbai, India next week, marking the U.S. electric carmakers first official foray into the country.
The one and a half hour launch event for the Tesla “Experience Center” will take place on July 15 at the Maker Maxity Mall in Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, according to an event invitation seen by CNBC.
Along with the showroom display, which will feature the company’s cars, Tesla is also likely to officially launch direct sales to Indian customers.
The automaker has had its eye on India for a while and now appears to have stepped up efforts to launch locally.
In April, Tesla boss Elon Musk spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss collaboration in areas including technology and innovation. That same month, the EV-maker’s finance chief said the company has been “very careful” in trying to figure out when to enter the market.
Tesla has no manufacturing operations in India, even though the country’s government is likely keen for the company to establish a factory. Instead the cars sold in India will need to be imported from Tesla’s other manufacturing locations in places like Shanghai, China, and Berlin, Germany.
As Tesla begins sales in India, it will come up against challenges from long-time Chinese rival BYD, as well as local player Tata Motors.
One potential challenge for Tesla comes by way of India’s import duties on electric vehicles, which stand at around 70%. India has tried to entice investment in the country by offering companies a reduced duty of 15% if they commit to invest $500 million and set up manufacturing locally.
HD Kumaraswamy, India’s minister for heavy industries, told reporters in June that Tesla is “not interested” in manufacturing in the country, according to a Reuters report.
Tesla is looking to recruit roles in Mumbai, job listings posted on LinkedIn . These include advisors working in showrooms, security, vehicle operators to collect data for its Autopilot feature and service technicians.
There are also roles being advertised in the Indian capital of New Delhi, including for store managers. It’s unclear if Tesla is planning to launch a showroom in the city.