Google drops AI bombs at Cloud Next 25: Gemini 2.5 Pro, Ironwood, and a $75B twist

Google Cloud Next 2025 took place in Las Vegas this week, unveiling some of the company’s most ambitious projects yet. The spotlight was on Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google’s most powerful AI model, and a massive $75 billion capital expenditure to expand cloud and AI capabilities in 2025.

CEO Sundar Pichai introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro, boasting multimodal abilities, native image and audio generation, and extreme performance upgrades. A smaller, lighter variant—Gemini 2.5 Flash—was also teased. According to Google, this model can outperform competitors like GPT-4o and DeepSeek R1, especially when run on the newly launched Ironwood TPUs.

 Ironwood TPUs & AI Hypercomputer: Power Meets Efficiency

Google's Ironwood, the seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit, offers 3,600 times the performance of the first-gen TPU and is 29% more energy-efficient. Paired with the newly revealed AI hypercomputer, Google is pushing the boundaries of AI deployment, performance optimization, and operational cost reduction.

 Google Cloud AI Expands: Vertex AI, Llama 4, & Multi-Agent Support

Google also announced broader support for open-source models like Meta’s Llama 4, now available via Vertex AI. These models will power multi-agent systems through the Agent Development Kit, encouraging developers to scale innovative AI solutions faster and more securely.

 Gemini in the Enterprise: Google Distributed Cloud & Workspace AI

Gemini 2.5 Pro now runs on Google Distributed Cloud, offering enterprises flexibility to operate in both air-gapped and connected environments. Meanwhile, Google Workspace AI received fresh upgrades including:

• Help Me Analyze in Sheets

• Audio summaries in Docs

• AI-powered task automation via Workspace Flows

Cloud WAN & Faster Global Connectivity

Enterprises can now access Google’s Cloud Wide Area Network (Cloud WAN) globally. The private network promises up to 40% faster speeds compared to the public internet and reduces total cost of ownership by the same margin.