Google announces new health-care AI updates for Search
A Google corporate logo hangs above the entrance to their office at St. John’s Terminal on March 11, 2025, in New York City.
Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images
Google on Tuesday announced health-care updates to Search, including a way for people with specific health conditions to compare their experiences with others.
The company unveiled a new feature called “What People Suggest,” which uses AI to pull together online commentary from patients with similar diagnoses. A patient with arthritis would be able to look up how other people with the condition approach exercise, for instance. The feature is available on mobile devices in the U.S., Google said.
Google said it has also expanded its knowledge panels, or the information boxes that appear to the right of search results, to cover “thousands” more health topics. The panels are coming to new countries and languages, including Spanish, Japanese and Portuguese, starting on mobile devices.
The tech giant has launched several health-care projects and features over the years, but it has struggled to outline a consistent business strategy within the sector. The company built out a formal Google Health unit starting around 2018, which swelled to more than 500 employees, but it was dissolved in 2021.
Karen DeSalvo, Google’s chief health officer, told CNBC months later that the company was “still all-in on health.”
In recent years, many of Google’s health-care initiatives have centered around AI.
Google introduced artificial intelligence summaries called AI Overviews last year, and the feature shows a quick summary of answers to search questions at the very top of Search. The rollout was rocky, as users were quick to share examples AI tool giving incorrect and controversial responses, like encouraging users to add glue to pizza.
AI Overviews appear for some health-related queries, like “How do I know if I have the flu?” But some experts have encouraged users to use caution with these answers, according to a December report from The Senior List. Out of more than 200 health searches, a panel of medical experts said 70% Google’s AI Overviews were considered risky.
Google said Tuesday that recent health-focused advancements with its Gemini models have allowed the company to improve AI Overviews for health topics.
In late 2023, Google announced MedLM, a suite of AI models designed specifically for health-care, to help clinicians and researchers carry out complex studies, summarize doctor-patient interactions and complete other tasks.
The company also unveiled Vertex AI Search for Healthcare that year, which is a generative AI tool that clinicians can use to search for information across disparate medical records.
Watch: Google to acquire cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp., speaks during the company’s annual general meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, June 27, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Intel and SoftBank announced on Monday that the Japanese conglomerate will make a $2 billion investment in the embattled chipmaker.
SoftBank will pay $23 per share for Intel’s common stock, which closed on Monday at $23.66. The shares rose about 6% in extended trading to $25.
The investment makes SoftBank the fifth-biggest Intel shareholder, according to FactSet. It’s a vote of support for Intel, which hasn’t been able to take advantage of the artificial intelligence boom in advanced semiconductors and has spent heavily to stand up a manufacturing business that’s yet to secure a significant customer.
“Masa and I have worked closely together for decades, and I appreciate the confidence he has placed in Intel with this investment,” Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a statement, referring to SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son.
Intel shares lost 60% of their value last year, their worst performance in the company’s more than half-century on the public market. The stock is up 18% in 2025 as of Monday’s close.
Tan took over as Intel CEO in March after his predecessor, Pat Gelsinger, was ousted in December.
Intel has been a major topic of discussion in Washington of late, due to the company’s role as the only American company capable of manufacturing the most advanced chips.
However, Intel’s foundry business, which is designed to manufacture chips for other companies, has yet to secure a major customer, a critical step towards stabilization and expansion. Last month, Intel said it would wait to secure orders before committing to certain future investment in its foundry.
Tan met with President Donald Trump last week after the president had called for the CEO’s resignation. The U.S. government is considering taking an equity stake in Intel, according to reports.
SoftBank, meanwhile, has become an increasingly large player in the global chip and AI markets.
In 2016, SoftBank acquired chip designer Arm in a deal worth about $32 billion at the time. Today the company is worth almost $150 billion. Arm-based chips are part of Nvidia’s systems that go into data centers.
And in March of this year, SoftBank announced plans to acquire another chip designer, Ampere Computing, for $6.5 billion.
SoftBank was also part of President Trump’s Stargate announcement in January, along with OpenAI and Oracle.
The three companies committed to invest an initial $100 billion and up to $500 billion over the next four years in the AI infrastructure project. Two months later, SoftBank led a $40 billion investment into OpenAI, the largest private tech deal on record.
“This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States, with Intel playing a critical role,” Son said in a statement.
Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, looks on during the closing bell at the Nasdaq Market in New York City on March 25, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Palo Alto Networks reported better-than-expected quarterly results and issued upbeat guidance for the current period. The cybersecurity software vendor said Nir Zuk, who founded the company in 2005, is retiring from his role as chief technology officer.
The stock rose about 6% in extended trading.
Here’s how the company did compared to LSEG estimates:
- Earnings: 95 cents adjusted vs. 88 cents expected
- Revenue: $2.54 billion vs. $2.5 billion expected.
Revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter rose 16% from about $2.2 billion last year, the company said in a statement. Net income fell to about $254 million, or 36 cents per share, from about $358 million, or 51 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
The company also issued upbeat guidance for the fiscal first quarter. Earnings per share will be between 88 cents and 90 cents, Palo Alto said, topping an 85-cents estimate from StreetAccount.
For the full year, Palo Alto said revenue will range from $10.48 billion to $10.53 billion on adjusted earnings of $3.75 to $3.85 per share. Both estimates exceeded Wall Street’s projections.
Palo Alto said that for the fiscal first quarter, remaining purchase obligations, which tracks backlog, will range between $15.4 billion and $15.5 billion, surpassing a $15.07 billion estimate.
Last month, the company announced plans to buy Israeli identity security provider CyberArk for $25 billion. It’s the largest deal Palo Alto has made since its founding, and most ambitious in an acquiring spree that ramped up after CEO Nikesh Arora took the helm of the company in 2018.
Shares sold off sharply after the news broke and have yet to recover previous highs. The stock is down about 3% this year as of Monday’s close.
“We look for great products, a team that can execute in the product, and we let them run it,” Arora told CNBC following the announcement. “This is going to be a different challenge, but we’ve done well 24 times, so I’m pretty confident that our team can handle this.”
Lee Klarich, the company’s product chief, will replace Zuk as CTO and fill his position on the board.
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