Alphabet’s AI products reach over 2.5 billion monthly users, says Sundar Pichai

Alphabet Inc.'s AI products now reach over 2.5 billion monthly active users, according to CEO Sundar Pichai at Google I/O 2026, with AI Overviews and the Gemini app driving growth. The company processes over 3.2 quadrillion tokens per month, a 7x increase year-over-year, and forecasts $180 billion to $190 billion in capital expenditures for 2026, nearly all for AI infrastructure. Alphabet's market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion earlier in 2026.

Photo: Nguyen Hung Vu from Hanoi, Vietnam / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 Alphabet’s AI products reach over 2.5 billion monthly users, says Sundar Pichai Google's parent company is processing over 3.2 quadrillion tokens per month as its Gemini-powered tools become the default way billions interact with AI To put 2.5 billion monthly active users in perspective, that’s roughly one in three humans on the planet opening up an AI-powered Google product every month. Sundar Pichai dropped that number at Google I/O 2026, revealing that AI Overviews, the Gemini-powered summaries that appear atop search results, have hit a scale that most standalone AI companies can only daydream about. The numbers behind Google’s AI surge AI Overviews at 2.5 billion users is the marquee stat, but the broader picture is just as striking. AI Mode, a more conversational search experience, crossed 1 billion monthly active users roughly one year after launch. The Gemini app itself grew from 400 million monthly users at the end of 2025 to 900 million by May 2026, effectively doubling in about five months. Reports from August 2026 suggest it has since crossed the 1 billion mark. Alphabet now claims 13 products with more than 1 billion users each, five of which exceed 3 billion. On the infrastructure side, the company says it processes over 3.2 quadrillion tokens per month. That’s a 7x increase from the prior year, a growth rate that explains why Alphabet is forecasting $180 billion to $190 billion in capital expenditures for 2026, nearly all of it directed at AI infrastructure like data centers and custom chips. What this means for Alphabet’s business Alphabet’s market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion earlier in 2026. The $180 billion to $190 billion capex target is roughly double what Alphabet was spending on infrastructure just two years ago. With token processing growing 7x year-over-year, the spending looks less like a speculative bet and more like keeping pace with demand that’s already arrived. The competitive landscape Meta is running a similar playbook, integrating its own AI assistant across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Apple has taken a more cautious path with Apple Intelligence. Microsoft has Copilot woven into Office and Windows. For Alphabet specifically, the Gemini app’s trajectory from 400 million to over 1 billion users in roughly eight months suggests the standalone product is also gaining traction, not just the embedded features. Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/ .