Google Takes the Crown
A year ago, Wall Street treated Google like a has-been. ChatGPT was the darling, OpenAI the future. Fast-forward twelve months and the script has flipped: Google’s Gemini is growing faster than ChatGPT, Anthropic just signed up to use a million Google chips, and OpenAI has declared internal “code red.” Sometimes the tortoise really does win.
📰 The Rundown
👑 Google Ends 2025 as AI’s Unlikely Winner
➡️ The move: Google closed out 2025 with momentum that surprised everyone. Gemini’s monthly active users grew 30% between August and December, compared to ChatGPT’s 15% growth in the same period. Anthropic expanded its plan to use up to one million Google AI chips, and Meta is reportedly in talks to do the same. Google Cloud revenue hit $15.1 billion in Q3, up 34% year over year.
⚡ Why it matters: The narrative has completely reversed. A year ago, Google declared “code red” after ChatGPT’s launch. Now it’s OpenAI’s turn to scramble. Deepwater Asset Management predicts Google will be the best-performing Mag 7 stock in 2026, calling it “the strongest position when it comes to a fully integrated AI stack.”
🎯 Your takeaway: The AI race isn’t a sprint. Google’s patient investment in infrastructure is paying off. For professionals, this means Gemini deserves a second look if you wrote it off early.
⚡ The AI Industry’s Next Pivot: Efficiency
➡️ The move: Former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly predicts 2026 will mark a major shift toward AI efficiency. “We run our brains on 20 watts. We don’t need gigawatt power centers to reason,” Kelly told CNBC. The data center market has accumulated over $61 billion in infrastructure deals this year as hyperscalers rush to build AI capacity.
⚡ Why it matters: The current AI buildout is unsustainable. Ten gigawatts of planned data centers equals New York City’s peak summer power demand. DeepSeek’s claim that it trained a competitive model for under $6 million has intensified pressure on U.S. companies to find cheaper approaches. Kelly expects “a number of Chinese players to come to the fore.”
🎯 Your takeaway: The companies that figure out how to do more with less will define the next phase of AI. Watch for efficiency to become a selling point, not just capability.
🔬 Big Tech Joins Government AI Science Mission
➡️ The move: Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Amazon Web Services are among 24 firms joining the U.S. “AI Genesis” initiative. The mission connects private AI capabilities with the Energy Department and national laboratories to accelerate scientific discovery. Companies have either signed memorandums of understanding or expressed interest in contributing resources.
⚡ Why it matters: This signals a new chapter in government-industry AI collaboration. Instead of competing purely for commercial dominance, major players are pooling capabilities for research breakthroughs. The initiative could yield advances in materials science, drug discovery, and climate modeling.
🎯 Your takeaway: AI’s next wins may come from laboratories, not launch events. Scientific applications are becoming the frontier for demonstrating what these systems can actually do.
🔧 Tool Spotlight: Raycast
Raycast is a launcher app for Mac that puts AI directly in your workflow. Instead of switching between ChatGPT tabs and your actual work, Raycast lets you invoke AI commands from anywhere with a keyboard shortcut.
What makes it different: Raycast isn’t a destination app. It’s an overlay that works on top of whatever you’re doing. Highlight text in any application, trigger Raycast, and ask AI to summarize, rewrite, or translate without leaving your current context. The built-in AI chat remembers conversation history across sessions.
Best for: Professionals who context-switch constantly and want AI assistance without disrupting their flow. Particularly powerful for Mac users who already rely on keyboard shortcuts.
Pricing: Free for basic launcher features. Raycast Pro ($8/month) adds AI capabilities, cloud sync, and team features. Raycast AI separately available for $10/month if you only want the AI features.
👉 Try it: Download from raycast.com
✨ Try This Today: The 3-Part Prompt Framework
Most people type one sentence into ChatGPT and wonder why the output feels generic. The problem isn’t the AI. It’s the prompt.
The insight: AI responds to context the way a new colleague does. Give it background, and you get better work.
The framework:
1. Role — Who should the AI be? (“Act as a senior marketing strategist…”)
2. Task — What specific output do you need? (“…write 3 subject line options…”)
3. Context — What constraints matter? (“…for a B2B SaaS audience, casual tone, under 50 characters”)
How to use it:
1. Take your last AI prompt
2. Identify what’s missing: Role, Task, or Context
3. Rewrite it using all three parts
4. Compare the outputs
Time required: 2 minutes to rewrite. Dramatically better results.
📚 Go deeper: Expanded lesson with exercises
✨ The Wire
🔗 OpenAI launched GPT-5.2-Codex on December 18, extending its coding model capabilities. OpenAI News
🔗 Gemini 3 Flash is rolling out globally in Google Search, promising frontier intelligence built for speed. Google Blog
🔗 Google rehired one in five of its 2025 AI hires from its own alumni pool as the talent war intensifies. Storyboard18
Neural Notes — AI that amplifies your value, not replaces it.
