Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at the Google I/O developer conference.
Andrej Sokolow | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Google on Tuesday hosted its annual I/O developer conference, and rolled out a range of artificial intelligence products, from new search and chat features to AI hardware for cloud customers. The announcements underscore the company’s focus on AI as it fends off competitors, such as OpenAI.
Many of the features or tools Google unveiled are only in a testing phase or limited to developers, but they give an idea of how the tech giant is thinking about AI and where it’s investing. Google makes money from AI by charging developers who use its models and from customers who pay for Gemini Advanced, its competitor to ChatGPT, which costs $19.99 per month and can help users summarize PDFs, Google Docs and more.
Tuesday’s announcements follow similar events held by its AI competitors. Earlier this month, Amazon-backed Anthropic announced its first-ever enterprise offering and a free iPhone app. Meanwhile, OpenAIon Monday launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with a new user interface.
Here’s what Google announced.
Gemini AI updates
Google introduced updates to Gemini 1.5 Pro, its AI model that will soon be able to handle even more data — for example, the tool can summarize 1,500 pages of text uploaded by a user.
There’s also a new Gemini 1.5 Flash AI model, which the company said is more cost-effective and designed for smaller tasks like quickly summarizing conversations, captioning images and videos and pulling data from large documents.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted improvements to Gemini’s translations, adding that it will be available to all developers worldwide in 35 languages. Within Gmail, Gemini 1.5 Pro will analyze attached PDFs and videos, giving summaries and more, Pichai said. That means that if you missed a long email thread on vacation, Gemini will be able to summarize it along with any attachments.
The new Gemini updates are also helpful for searching Gmail. One example the company gave: If you’ve been comparing prices from different contractors to fix your roof and are looking for a summary to help you decide who to pick, Gemini could return three quotes along with the anticipated start dates offered in the different email threads.
Google said Gemini will eventually replace Google Assistant on Android phones, suggesting it’s going to be a more powerful competitor to Apple’s Siri on iPhone.
Google Veo, Imagen 3 and Audio Overviews
Google announced “Veo,” its latest model for generating high-definition video, and Imagen 3, its highest quality text-to-image model, which promises lifelike images and “fewer distracting visual artifacts than our prior models.”
The tools will be available for select creators on Monday and will come to Vertex AI, Google’s machine learning platform that lets developers train and deploy AI applications.
The company also showcased “Audio Overviews,” the ability to generate audio discussions based on text input. For instance, if a user uploads a lesson plan, the chatbot can speak a summary of it. Or, if you ask for an example of a science problem in real life, it can do so through interactive audio.
Separately, the company also showcased “AI Sandbox,” a range of generative AI tools for creating music and sounds from scratch, based on user prompts.
Generative AI tools such as chatbots and image creators continue to have issues with accuracy, however.
Google search boss Prabhakar Raghavan told employees last month that competitors “may have a new gizmo out there that people like to play with, but they still come to Google to verify what they see there because it is the trusted source, and it becomes more critical in this era of generative AI.”
Earlier this year, Google introduced the Gemini-powered image generator. Users discovered historical inaccuracies that went viral online, and the company pulled the feature, saying it would relaunch it in the coming weeks. The feature has still not been re-released.
New search features
The tech giant is launching “AI Overviews” in Google Search on Monday in the U.S. AI Overviews show a quick summary of answers to the most complex search questions, according to Liz Reid, head of Google Search. For example, if a user searches for the best way to clean leather boots, the results page may display an “AI Overview” at the top with a multi-step cleaning process, gleaned from information it synthesized from around the web.
The company said it plans to introduce assistant-like planning capabilities directly within search. It explained that users will be able to search for something like, “‘Create a 3-day meal plan for a group that’s easy to prepare,'” and you’ll get a starting point with a wide range of recipes from across the web.
As far as its progress to offer “multimodality,” or integrating more images and video within generative AI tools, Google said it will begin testing the ability for users to ask questions through video, such as filming a problem with a product they own, uploading it and asking the search engine to figure out the problem. In one example, Google showed someone filming a broken record player while asking why it wasn’t working. Google Search found the model of the record player and suggested that it could be malfunctioning because it wasn’t properly balanced.
Another new feature being tested is called “AI Teammate,” which will integrate into a user’s Google Workspace. It can build a searchable collection of work from messages and email threads with more PDFs and documents. For instance, a founder-to-be could ask the AI Teammate, “Are we ready for launch?” and the assistant will provide an analysis and summary based on the information it can access in Gmail, Google Docs and other Workspace apps.
Project Astra
Project Astra is Google’s latest advancement toward its AI assistant that’s being built by Google’s DeepMind AI unit. It’s just a prototype for now, but you can think of it as Google’s aim to develop its own version of J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony Stark’s all-knowing AI assistant from the Marvel Universe.
In the demo video presented at Google I/O, the assistant — through video and audio, rather than a chatbot interface — was able to help the user remember where they left their glasses, review code and answer questions about what a certain part of a speaker is called, when that speaker was shown on video.
Google said a truly useful chatbot needs to let users “talk to it naturally and without lag or delay.” The conversation in the demo video happened in real time, without lags. The demo followed OpenAI’s Monday showcase of a similar audio back-and-forth conversation with ChatGPT.
DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said onstage that “getting response time down to something conversational is a difficult engineering challenge.”
Pichai said he expects Project Astra to launch in Gemini later this year.
AI hardware
Google also announced Trillium, its sixth-generation TPU, or tensor processing unit — a piece of hardware integral to running complex AI operations — which is to be available to cloud customers in late 2024.
The TPUs aren’t meant to compete with other chips, like Nvidia’s graphics processing units. Pichai noted during I/O, for example, that Google Cloud will begin offering Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs in early 2025.
Nvidia said in March that Google will be using the Blackwell platform for “various internal deployments and will be one of the first cloud providers to offer Blackwell-powered instances,” and that access to Nvidia’s systems will help Google offer large-scale tools for enterprise developers building large language models.
In his speech, Pichai highlighted Google’s “longstanding partnership with Nvidia.” The companies have been working together for more than a decade, and Pichai has said in the past that he expects them to still be doing so a decade from now.
A Thanksgiving week rally couldn’t put all three major indexes in the green for November. The S & P 500 gained nearly 4% for the week, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added more than 3% — a strong enough showing for each to eke out gains for the month. It extends their streak of winning months to seven. And while the Nasdaq Composite ended the week higher by more than 4%, it wasn’t enough to overcome selling earlier in the month triggered by valuation concerns about the artificial intelligence trade. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell roughly 2% in November, ending its seven-month winning streak. .SPX YTD mountain S & P 500 (SPX) year-to-date performance There were a couple of bright spots in our portfolio during the holiday-shortened trading week. Apple shares notched three consecutive all-time highs this week, starting on Monday and ending on Wednesday. The stock has been buoyed by positive demand signs for Apple’s iPhone 17 series. Counterpoint Research data on Wednesday showed that Apple is on track to dethrone Samsung as the world’s top smartphone maker this year — an achievement the iPhone maker hasn’t seen in over a decade. Overall, Counterpoint analysts expect Apple to capture 19.4% of the global smartphone market in 2025, compared with Samsung’s expected 18.7%. The stock rose further on Friday, closing the week with a nearly 3% gain. Broadcom secured all-time record closes during every trading session this week. The stock’s been up as Wall Street starts to see the chipmaker as an ancillary play to Alphabet ‘s growing AI dominance. As Google began rolling out its latest AI model, investors see benefits for Broadcom as a co-designer of its specialized chips, called tensor processing units (TPUs). Media reports earlier in the week of Meta Platforms considering Google’s TPUs for its data centers in 2027 added fuel to Broadcom’s run. That’s because Alphabet’s AI expansion could drive more sales for Broadcom’s crucial networking and custom chips businesses, which was a key reason the Club started a position in the stock. Shares of Broadcom advanced more than 18% week to date. Fellow chipmaker Nvidia went the other way, with shares hitting a nearly three-month low on Tuesday as those same reports highlighted how some big tech companies are looking for alternatives to Nvidia’s chips. But Jim Cramer recommended staying the course , and called the stock dip a buying opportunity for new investors. After all, Nvidia still dominates the extremely lucrative AI chip market. “The demand is insatiable for Nvidia,” Jim said Tuesday. Shares fell 1% week to date. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia (NVDA) year-to-date performance And while we didn’t see any earnings from the portfolio this past week, Dick’s Sporting Goods ‘ quarterly report was great news for Club holding Nike . Jim called the retail stock a buy on Tuesday after Dick’s announced plans to close several Foot Locker locations during its third-quarter earnings call. “Nike is a buy off of Dick’s problems,” Jim said. Management’s remarks indicated that Nike’s relationship with the retail giant has been improving, a positive sign for Nike’s turnaround story. “They’re moving in the right direction,” Ed Stack, executive chairman of Dick’s Sporting Goods, told “Squawk on the Street,” after the company’s earnings were released. He cited a strong performance from Nike’s running line. “If you take a look at what they did with their running construct, what they did with Pegasus, what they did with Vomero, what they did with Structure, this running concept has done extremely well on the Dick’s side, and where it’s been put into Foot Locker stores, it’s done really well there too.” Nike stock jumped nearly 3% week to date. NKE YTD mountain Nike (NKE) year-to-date peformance Trades Finally, we executed two trades during the shortened holiday trading week. On Monday, the Club bought more Palo Alto Networks shares on the cybersecurity company’s overblown post-earnings decline. We saw the weakness as an opportunity, given that Palo Alto delivered a beat-and-raise third quarter that topped estimates for every single key metric. The Nov. 19 report showed that momentum in Palo Alto’s “platformization” strategy of bundling its products and services remains promising. Deals from Palo Alto make us even more bullish on the stock. The company announced plans to buy cloud management and monitoring company Chronosphere for $3.35 billion. Management’s acquisition of identity-security leader CyberArk was approved by shareholders on Nov. 13 and is expected to close in the third quarter of fiscal year 2026. “Palo Alto Networks is setting itself apart in the AI era by adding two platforms just as their respective markets hit key inflection points,” Jeff Marks, the Investing Club’s director of portfolio analysis, wrote in a trade alert. We added to our Procter & Gamble position on Tuesday, our second purchase of the consumer goods giant since starting a position on Nov. 18. The thesis: Shares will benefit from any rotation out of Big Tech and into more economically resilient companies. Basically, if AI spending lets up or the U.S. economy slows down, defensive stocks like P & G should shine. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp attends the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 15, 2025.
Shares of the software analytics provider dropped 16% for their worst month since August 2023 as investors dumped AI stocks due to valuation fears. Meanwhile, famed investor Michael Burry doubled down on the artificial intelligence trade and bet against the company.
Palantir started November off on a high note.
The Denver-based company topped Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations. Palantir also posted its second-straight $1 billion revenue quarter, but high valuation concerns contributed to a post-print selloff.
In a note to clients, Jefferies analysts called Palantir’s valuation “extreme” and argued investors would find better risk-reward in AI names such as Microsoft and Snowflake. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets raised concerns about the company’s “increasingly concentrated growth profile,” while Deutsche Bank called the valuation “very difficult to wrap our heads around.”
Adding fuel to the post-earnings selloff was the revelation that Burry is betting against Palantir and AI chipmaker Nvidia. Burry, who is widely known for predicting the housing crisis that occurred in 2008 and the portrayal of him in the film “The Big Short,” later accused hyperscalers of artificially boosting earnings.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp vocally hit the front lines, appearing twice in one week on CNBC, where he accused Burry of “market manipulation” and called the investor’s actions “egregious.”
“The idea that chips and ontology is what you want to short is bats— crazy,” Karp told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Despite the vicious selloff, Palantir has notched some deal wins this month. That included a multiyear contract with consulting firm PwC to speed up AI adoption in the U.K. and a deal with aircraft engine maintenance company FTAI.
But those announcements did little to shake off valuation worries that have haunted all AI-tied companies in November.
Across the board, investors have viciously ditched the high-priced group, citing fears of stretched valuations and a bubble.
In November, Nvidia pulled back more than 12%, while Microsoft and Amazon dropped about 5% each. Quantum computing names such as Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum have shed more than a third of their value.
Apple and Alphabet were the only Magnificent 7 stocks to end the month with gains.
Sill, questions linger over Palantir’s valuation, and those worries aren’t a new concern.
Even after its steep price drop, the company’s stock trades at 233 times forward earnings. By comparison, Nvidia and Alphabet traded at about 38 times and 30 times, respectively, at Friday’s close.
Karp, who has long defended the company, didn’t miss an opportunity to clap back at his critics, arguing in a letter to shareholders that the company is making it feasible for everyday investors to attain rates of return once “limited to the most successful venture capitalists in Palo Alto.”
“Please turn on the conventional television and see how unhappy those that didn’t invest in us are,” Karp said during an earnings call. “Enjoy, get some popcorn. They’re crying. We are every day making this company better, and we’re doing it for this nation, for allied countries.”
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Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. Down and out
Stock futures trading was halted this morning after a data center “cooling issue” took down several Chicago Mercantile Exchange services. Individual stocks were still trading before the bell, while the CME said futures indexes and options trading would open fully at 8:30 a.m. Follow live markets updates here.
The stock market has rebounded during the holiday-shortened trading week. But the three major indexes are still on pace to end November’s trading month — which ends with today’s closing bell — in the red. The Dow and S&P 500 are poised to snap six-month winning streaks, while the Nasdaq Composite is on track to see its first negative month in eight.
Today’s trading session ends early at 1 p.m. ET.
2. Shopping and dropping
A Black Friday sale sign is displayed in a shop window at an outlet mall in Carlsbad, California, U.S., Nov. 25, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Black Friday was once considered the biggest in-person shopping day of the year, drawing huge crowds to stores in search of bargains. But while millions are still expected to partake in the occasion, it’s not what it used to be.
Here’s what to know:
In the past six years, online sales have outpaced brick-and-mortar spending on Black Friday. Data shows in-person foot traffic has been mostly flat over the last few years, as well.
No matter where they make their purchases, shoppers are also skeptical that they’re getting the best deals.
As CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge reports, the shift has meant a change in strategy for many of the retail industry’s biggest names. Some have started offering their holiday sales earlier in the season, while others are spacing out their promotions.
Deloitte reported that the average consumer will shell out $622 between Nov. 27 and Dec. 1, a decrease of 4% from last year.
Even as the day of deals loses its allure, AT&T found that Gen Z participates the most, while their older counterparts do their shopping closer to Christmas.
3. AI comeback
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Alphabet has been a notable exception to the recent tech downturn. Shares of the Google parent have surged more than 13% this month as Wall Street sees the company as an AI leader.
Alphabet began the month by announcing its latest tensor processing units, or TPUs, called Ironwood. Last week, the company launched its latest AI model, Gemini 3, which caught positive attention from Silicon Valley heavyweights.
Shares of the stock are now up close to 70% this year, making it the best-performer within megacap tech. But experts told CNBC’s Jennifer Elias that Alphabet’s lead in the competitive AI market is marginal and could be hard to hold onto.
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4. Tech’s tug of wars
Alibaba announced plans to release a pair of smart glasses powered by its AI models. The Quark AI Glasses are Alibaba’s first foray into the smart glasses product category.
Alibaba‘s AI-powered smart glasses went on sale yesterday. With its new wearable tech offering, the Chinese tech company is going up against major players — namely Meta, which unveiled its smart glasses with Ray Ban in September.
Meanwhile, Counterpoint Research found Apple is poised to ship more smartphones than Samsung this year for the first time in 14 years. Apple is also poised to boast a larger market share, driven by strong iPhone 17 sales.
5. From Seoul to Los Angeles
Carly Xie looks over facial mask items at the Face Shop, which specializes in Korean cosmetics, in San Francisco, April 15, 2015.
Avila Gonzalez | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images
American shoppers are increasingly looking to South Korea for their cosmetics. NielsenIQ found U.S. sales of so-called “K-beauty” products are slated to surge more than 37% this year to above $2 billion.
Retailers ranging from beauty product hubs Ulta and Sephora to big-box chains Walmart and Costco are jumping on the trend. On top of that, Olive Young — aka the “Sephora of Seoul” — is opening its first U.S. store in Los Angeles next year.
The Daily Dividend
Here are some stories worth circling back to over the weekend:
— CNBC’s Chloe Taylor, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Laya Neelakandan, Jessica Dickler, Sarah Min, Sean Conlon, Jennifer Elias, Arjun Kharpal and Luke Fountain contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.