Google rose to the top in the AI race. Here’s what it’ll take to stay there.

Alphabet established itself as a household artificial-intelligence name this year as its

Gemini frontier model and cloud business grew rapidly. Now the company needs to maintain its leading role.

Shares of Alphabet GOOGL GOOG are on track to become the best annual performer within the “Magnificent Seven” for the first time, gaining 65.6% since the beginning of the year through Friday. But Alphabet can’t afford to rest on its laurels. The company spent the year dismantling the narrative that OpenAI’s ChatGPT had killed Google Search, and it will need to continue innovating and securing landmark deals to stay in the spotlight.