These Latest Changes at Google Might Be Surprising to Some
Google, the massive company that stretches its tentacles into virtually everything we do, is turning 27 this year on the 27th of September, and it has truly matured. The company is insanely profitable and completely ubiquitous. And while Google is not yet a $4 trillion company like its peers Nvidia and Microsoft, it does generate more annual profit than each of those mega tech giants, thanks to its wide umbrella under Alphabet.
Alphabet, formed in 1998 as Google Search, has two stock symbols representing the lettered-logo corporation because a stock split in 2022 made the tech giant two entities. Today, Alphabet stocks registered at Nasdaq, both GOOG and GOOGL, are two of the most coveted shares on the market.
So what is the tech giant up to these days? Well, a lot.
For a quick update, its own AI Overview provides this description:
Recent Google news includes a legal setback in the Epic Games case, where Google lost an appeal regarding app store reforms, and ongoing discussions about potential third-party app stores on the Google Play Store. Additionally, Google is facing scrutiny over its AI practices in Europe and has proposed a new framework for real-money gaming apps in India. Google is also under fire for its digital advertising practices, with a US judge ruling that Google holds an illegal ad monopoly.
It seems Google's new framework for gaming apps in India may have hit a roadblock as the country's parliament passed a ban on real-money gaming in August. But what else is Google up to? Some of its serious activity revolves around accommodating AI projects and the infrastructure. These recent moves are wide ranging and significant. In fact, they are shifting the terrain at the Mountain View monopoly. Gentrification has not only set in, it is changing the company narrative.
For one, the tech firm’s massive investment in artificial intelligence has caused the U.S.-based corporation to veer from its reputation as a big tech zero-carb darling.
Google Supports Nuclear Energy
Google no longer claims to be a carbon-neutral organization. At one point, leader of the net-zero corporate movement, now, due to AI, they are now in the market for carbon credits. To assuage the issue of their larger carbon footprint, they have naturally invested in green energy. But, did you know that Google took the nuclear route? As nuclear power is now considered a green energy, and since the investment is driven by clever tech nuclear startups, like Kairos Power, it makes sense, according to the company and investors. It makes equal sense when you look at the industry. Microsoft, Amazon AWS and other AI-intensive business, like crypto currency, are looking at this burgeoning development in nuclear energy plant proliferation. The goal is to install small modular reactors (SMR) across wide stretches of the grid. SMRs are factory-built, “micro reactors” which can be installed with fewer costs than traditional nuclear plants. These smaller installations planned across the country prospectively would pave the way for SMR nuclear plants to go to scale.
At present, there is one SMR project underway in Canada, operated by Ontario Power Generation, the first in North America. This project is not operational until 2029 and it differs from the SMR technology Google has invested in because it employs a traditional water-cooled reactor. But the project in Ontario exemplifies what the next-generation nuclear tech industry expects. This is growth powered by private investment. That way, as an industry insider cited by an IAEA publication put it, we will be able to “realize the benefits of nuclear at scale.” And the nuclear industry can finally realize its dream in becoming a growth industry.
Google does not yet own any nuclear energy plants and they are not even under construction yet. The goal is to build seven of them. To this end, Alphabet made a deal with “next-gen” nuclear startup company Kairos Power. Its investment entails receiving 500 megawatts of electricity, delivered by the seven proposed SMRs.
Google signed up with Kairos Power in October 2024, after the startup company received construction approval by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for two demonstration reactors. In April, Kairos made a deal with the Department of Energy (DOE) to provide high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to supply near-term fuel needs to five nuclear developers in the U.S., according to the company website.
Google’s senior director of clean energy and carbon reduction, Michael Terrell welcomed Kairos Power saying there are “a lot of advantages to nuclear.” But it is just one. All alternative energies will be used, like wind, solar, battery, geothermal, and other nuclear options to supply solutions to data center energy demands. Terrell says, “all of this is equally important,” but adds, “I think nuclear gets a lot of love.”
Google’s SMR plants may not be ready in time. The deal is for 500 megawatts by 2035 and for one plant to be up by 2030. But demands are in the shorter term, like now. According to the MIT Technology Review, Kairos Power will likely not meet the demand at Google. And this is mainly because the advanced technology, used in molten salt reactors, has not been engineered or developed by the company based in Alameda, CA. So the next-gen startup is going to be strongly challenged here.
Can Kairos Power Deliver the Tech?
If we just look at the Kairos Power website, it shows confidence of the company's ability to deliver a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) cooled SMR plant. Yet, at the same time, it seems to confirm the analysis at the MIT Technology Review.
A simplistic graphic to represent its design theory and to explain how its Hermes 2 Demonstration Plant works is provided by Kairos Power but it is very brief. Under the heading, "How we are achieving this," the company offers murky rhetoric which is very vague. It states:
Kairos Power is set apart by its integrated design philosophy, testing program, and licensing approach to deliver its mission of reliable, responsible, and competitive power. The FHR [the technology using molten salt coolant] is being designed with characteristics important to our customers: License-ability, constructability, operability, responsibility.
What is "constructability" anyway? Its stated "design philosophy" is equally vague. The use of corporate lingo seems like it is in lieu of something. Like, maybe that the company does not invent design solutions, but appears to only license them. Or as Kairos' website explains:
Kairos Power is a mission-driven engineering company focused on the delivery of a clean, affordable and safe energy solution through the integrated design, licensing and demonstration of advanced reactor technology.
The Kairos Power website does not indicate the feasibility of a MSR-resistant design material. Meanwhile, its completion goal is 2030. All the latest media updates promoted at the site are unrelated to this key issue. However, efficiency goals, cost and quality claims are reiterated throughout.
The company's website does provide a specifications list. A graphite grade IBIDEN ET-10 is listed, presumably it is a structural reactor material. Meanwhile, as of last year, the understanding of "graphite behavior in molten salt environments remains incomplete." This according to the NRC.
Serious Challenges Exist
Pointedly, according to Gen IV, the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), finding a material that can withstand the design technology is a serious challenge. The high temperatures of molten salt reactors require a unique material that has not been discovered after decades of research. According to Gen IV, a leading international forum created to develop nuclear research, "Finding materials that can withstand this harsh chemical environment, resist corrosion, endure high temperatures, and tolerate neutron fluxes over long periods remains a significant challenge." Molten salt is extremely corrosive. Is there a material that can withstand it?
One update on design technology internationally available for the development of materials for molten salt reactors was announced in July. This recent update followed a Feb. 2024 preliminary design unveiling. None of the updated information includes the proposed materials. The new design phase for this project says, "the development of materials for the design documentation" is not due until 2027. The materials are not developed. Additionally, WNN said this project is "under the scientific supervision of the Kurchatov Institute." Arguably, the most advanced program for molten salt technology is promised by Russia. The target date for a prototype reactor is 2031.
China has an experimental molten salt reactor up and running. Lead scientist Xu Hongjie announced it became operational, operating continuously without a shutdown, June 2024. This is the world's leading advancement of this specialized nuclear power technology. This one works in tangent with thorium fuel. It uses a MSR, making it appear similar in complexity to the MSR project Google has invested in. Contrastingly, the Kairos project uses TRISO, a uranium-based fuel particle.
There is one problem. The project is still in its experimental phase. In short, the materials it is relying on, corrosion-resistant graphite and metals, may not last. Nuclear Engineering International said in April, "According to Guangming Daily, [the scientists say] there are 'no quick wins' and technical hurdles remain significant. The corrosive nature of molten salts, for instance, demands custom-built alloys like Hastelloy-N, capable of withstanding both radiation and chemical degradation."
There are Many Upsides, if the Technology Can Be Applied
One of the upsides to creating molten salt reactors is that the traditional breakdown of radioactive materials, which can take 10,000 years, is cut down to a few hundred years.
Also, nuclear fission, instead of fusion is used in SMRs. This lowers the dangerous risk known as nuclear meltdown or explosion. In a dangerous situation, AI is touted as a fail-safe for automatic shut-downs. Another positive outcome of these newer reactors would be a longer fuel cycle. In uranium-enriched SMRs, the fuel-cycle is three to five years. Additionally, used fuel can be "cleaned" and reused. The list of benefits attending the proposed technology is hope-inspiring, but the feasibility side of the equation looks more like a pipe dream.
https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/p15790-PUB9062_web.pdf
Google Joins a Partnership With Israeli Tech Unicorn Wiz
Another issue with AI is its ability to create new, more complex risks to cybersecurity. According to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), "Artificial intelligence (AI) will almost certainly increase the volume and heighten the impact of cyber attacks." This is because AI provides highly efficient tools like augmented capabilities in voice and video and automation which increase the speed of the attack. And considering that since 2020, business relies heavily on cloud environments, it makes sense that this is a vital front in cybersecurity. To this end, Google Cloud struck a deal with an Israeli cybersecurity company with its recent acquisition of Wiz.
To explain this new relationship, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian announced, “Google Cloud and Wiz share a joint vision to make cybersecurity more accessible and simpler to use for organizations of any size and industry. Enabling more companies to prevent cyberattacks, including in very complex business software environments, will help organizations minimize the cost, disruption and hassle caused by cybersecurity incidents.”
Acquiring Wiz, a cybersecurity platform, operating under a NYC headquarters in New York, was a huge move. Alphabet paid $32 billion for the highly-rated cloud security startup, in cash, sealing the largest acquisition deal Google has put on the books. And it is much larger than Alphabet's previous record-breaking acquisition, made with Motorola Mobility in 2012. That one pales in comparison to the $32 billion Wiz deal, it was $12.5 billion, significantly smaller. The Wiz deal is also 30 times larger than Alphabet's 2013 Waze acquisition, to put the significance of this acquisition in perspective.
Nevertheless, Wiz, in the agreement, won the ability to continue operating independently, for now. This was a key factor in the deal for the startup, and the reason Wiz turned down Google's previous offer of $23 billion. However, this arrangement is pending on regulatory review, with finalization expected next year. If the deal reaches approval, Google will integrate Wiz cloud services into Google Cloud. And Wiz will remain in operation at clients like AWS and Microsoft, as an example of the independence it achieved in the deal.
Wiz was founded in 2020 and hit $100 million yearly revenue in less than two years. It is one of the fastest-growing startups in the world, earning its "unicorn" appellation. The client list at Wiz is impressive. It serves 50 percent of the companies on the Fortune 100. Its technology supports cloud IT platforms at major players like, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Backing by Google was a win for Israel. Ariel Peleg, a representative of the Israeli Chamber of Information Technology nonprofit said the arrangement is “excellent news for Israeli high-tech in general and for the defense-tech sector in particular.” According to a Google company announcement, the Google Cloud infrastructure, a leader in innovation, will be brought to Wiz. Accessing Google Cloud will allow Wiz to "scale cybersecurity teams" and "vastly improve how security is designed, operated and automated." Wiz co-founder, Assaf Rappaport went further, beaming, “Becoming part of Google Cloud is effectively strapping a rocket to our backs.”
The Wiz partnership is not the first time Alphabet has paired with an Israeli security company. In 2022, the company acquired cyber security platform Siemplify for $500 million. The $1.3 billion Waze acquisition is another example of Google's investment in Israeli tech startups. Waze, incidentally, was the first unicorn Google purchased.
Wiz, formerly referred to as a cybersecurity unicorn, was co-founded by the same team that launched Adallom. Adallom, which was picked up by Microsoft in 2015 for $320 million, provided enhanced security for Microsoft customer data, as an early cloud security IT company. The team, consisting of Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik, went on to lead Microsoft Azure Cloud Security Group.
The team formed during their service in the Israeli army. Graduating from the elite IDF military intelligence unit, known as unit 8200, after a decade of service, this band of techies are barely hitting their 40s. The singularly elite military intelligence unit also delivered the startup founders of Waze, CyberArk and Palo Alto Networks.
According to Waze co-founder Uri Levine, the background in the IDF is key. “The skills acquired during Israeli military service are also serving the startup ecosystem.” Because, he says, “It has not so much to do with technology—it is about maturing and dealing with challenges that no one else in the world deals with at the age of 18.”
The Windsurf Deal
Lastly, Alphabet succeeded in wrenching Windsurf from the clutches of OpenAI. In a move that reminds of the Waze acquisition, when Google bought the app from under Facebook, Google recently upended a $3 billion deal by Microsoft partner OpenAI to win Windsurf.
Windsurf, riding waves as one of the top global AI-coding startups, instead accepted the $2.4 billion deal from Google. The sum paid for hiring the CEO of Windsurf and much of its top talent away from the company and for licensing rights. In the unconventional deal, former Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, and others, will serve at Google DeepMind. Co-founder Douglas Chen will also go to Google. Licensing rights to Windsurf technology is half of the deal. So, Google does not in any way operate what's left of Windsurf, but owns the rights to the company's tech. Windsurf will operate independently. And as it turned out, Windsurf was acquired by Cognition.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/08...
Venture capitalists raked in the most sizable cut in the Windsurf deal, according to TechCrunch. Major VCs involved include Greenoaks, Kleiner Perkins, and General Catalyst.
Updated 8/6/2025
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