The launch of Gemini 3 didn’t just break the internet with its 1500+ Elo score and near-perfect math-exam results. It quietly confirmed something far more important: Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin never really left.
Officially “retired” in 2019, Brin slipped back into Mountain View in early 2023, triggered by the ChatGPT wake-up call. Since then he has been in the office almost every day, personally steering Gemini and the rest of Google’s AI portfolio. His surprise appearance as a headliner at Google I/O 2025 alongside Demis Hassabis wasn’t just ceremonial; it was a declaration that the founder is once again the driving force.
The numbers since his return speak for themselves:
- Google Cloud quarterly revenue roughly doubled from Q1 2023 to Q3 2025, powered almost entirely by Gemini and Vertex AI.
- Gemini’s share of the enterprise LLM API market grew 2.5× to 25 % in just two years.
- Monthly active users of Gemini exploded 7× to 650 million.
- The Gemini API now processes 7 billion tokens per minute.
- Alphabet stock rose 3.6× from January 2023 to late November 2025.
Even Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway broke its long-standing “no tech” streak last week and bought $4.3 billion of Alphabet shares (its first-ever position in the company).
Meanwhile, Google’s product lineup has quietly become one of the strongest in AI:
- Antigravity (the evolved Duet AI) is now the preferred coding assistant for millions of developers.
- NotebookLM has turned into a research powerhouse.
- Nano Banana Pro (launched November 20, 2025) is generating images that rival the best from OpenAI and Midjourney.
- Veo 3 is producing 1080p video from text prompts with quality that has Hollywood studios paying attention.
Independent rankings reflect the turnaround:
- Gemini 3 Pro sits at #1 on most public leaderboards.
- Gemini Flash 2.5 is the top-ranked mid-size model for reasoning per dollar.
- Google is #2 globally in AI talent retention and AI-lab prestige.
- Only Anthropic edges it out on the list of labs with the most world-class researchers.
Across the valley, the mood has shifted. Sam Altman reportedly warned OpenAI staff last week that Google’s momentum with Gemini is creating real financial pressure on their own runway.
The lesson is simple and timeless: never underestimate a founder who decides to come back.
Sergey Brin is 52, still rides unicycles through the office, and is personally writing prompts to test the latest models. Google isn’t just competing in AI anymore; it’s starting to look like the company that once terrified the industry in the early 2000s.
Founders, take note. The fire still matters - even at two trillion dollars.
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