Gemini 3.5 Pro, Google’s most advanced artificial intelligence model, won’t ship as planned. According to a report that surfaced in mid-July 2026, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has pushed back its broad rollout by several months. The reason: internal testing showed the model fell short of the company’s expectations on coding performance and complex, long-horizon reasoning tasks. The news sent Alphabet shares down more than 4%.
A Much-Anticipated Model That Fell Short Internally
Gemini 3.5 Pro was previewed at the Google I/O conference in early 2026, and its launch had been expected around June. It ultimately remains in a limited enterprise preview while engineers improve its capabilities, particularly in programming and “agentic reasoning” — an AI’s ability to plan and carry out a task across multiple steps on its own.
This delay illustrates a reality of the industry: even Google’s colossal computing resources cannot guarantee steady progress at the frontier of AI.
Competition That’s Accelerating
The timing is all the more delicate because rivals are moving fast. OpenAI and Anthropic keep pushing ever more capable models, and China’s Moonshot AI has just unveiled Kimi K3, which ranked highly on coding tests that same week. The pressure is mounting on Google to prove that Gemini is still in the race.
A delayed launch doesn’t mean Google has lost, though. The firm retains a formidable AI ecosystem: its in-house chips (TPUs), Google Cloud, DeepMind, Android, Search, YouTube, and billions of user accounts.
What It Changes for You
In the short term, if you already use Gemini, nothing disappears: current versions remain available. The model notably powers Pixel smartphones, which are betting everything on Google’s on-device AI.
- The Google Pixel 9 Pro builds Gemini into the core of the system, from photography to the assistant. Check the Pixel 9 Pro price on Amazon
To understand the stakes, also read our comparison of the best AI assistants right now.
As an Amazon Associate, Wanda-techs earns from qualifying purchases. This affects neither our independent analysis nor the price you pay.
In Short
The delay of Gemini 3.5 Pro is a reminder that the AI race is won on reliability as much as on raw power. Google would rather polish its model than ship a disappointing product — a risky bet against competitors who aren’t waiting for it.
Do you think Google can still catch up with OpenAI and Anthropic? Give us your take in the comments on Wanda-techs.com.
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