Alphabet shares traded about 2% lower Thursday, erasing an early gain of roughly 3% following Google's unveiling of Gemini 4 Argon. Access to the flagship AI model remains limited to selected cybersecurity partners and internal teams, with no public release date announced.

Some employees with access to Gemini 4 say its strong benchmark results do not fully translate into performance on actual work, including certain coding tasks and front end design, Bloomberg reported. Internal views are mixed on whether it has caught up with OpenAI and Anthropic. Google disputes the characterization that the model is underperforming. CEO Sundar Pichai said: “Teams are using it extensively at Google, from coding to quantum computing, great feedback.”

Argon scored 53 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, matching GPT-6 Astra. At Google's introductory prices of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, Argon cost $1.99 per task in that evaluation, compared with Astra's $3.26. The 50% promotion has no confirmed end date; at standard pricing, Argon's cost rises to $3.98 per task.