While ChatGPT begins to show its limits, Google is regaining the advantage by banking on the power of its ecosystem, of which artificial intelligence is just one brick among others.
Did we bet too quickly on the death of Google, promised to be killed by ChatGPT? With its 800 million weekly users, OpenAI’s intelligent LLM seems poised to win the game.
But that’s without taking into account the resilience of Google, whose new AI model – Gemini 3 – embodies the next generation of language models: more efficient and integrated into existing services.
Should we see a sign there? Warren Buffett invested $4.3 billion in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, via his Berkshire Hathaway fund. An approach that surprised many observers, given the businessman’s historical aversion to investments in tech.
Above all, it is proof that the future is indeed embodied by Google, whose strength lies less in its technological model than in its economic model, backed by an unshakeable ecosystem.
Google: an ecosystem that extends its tentacles everywhere
To understand why Google will win the battle against ChatGPT, we must understand one thing: beyond its historic search engine, the firm relies on a powerful ecosystem whose success cannot be denied. Some figures:
- Its browser, Chrome, accounts for 65% of global web traffic, or 3.45 billion users.
- Its search engine represents 89% of overall traffic: 9 out of 10 searches are done via Google.
- Its operating system, Android, has a 72% market share worldwide.
Other Google products and services are not left out. Gmail is used by 1.8 billion people, Drive by 2 billion monthly active users, and YouTube by 2.5 to 2.85 billion Internet users each month.
Finally, let’s look at the AI numbers. While ChatGPT stagnates at 800 million users, Gemini – launched in December 2023, more than a year after its rival – already has 650 million monthly users. And, according to internal reports, AI Overviews already has more than 2 billion users.
A difference of vision rather than model
The main difference between Google and ChatGPT? A question of vision. OpenAI relied on spectacular AI, an intelligent gadget capable of generating autonomous content. The modern version of the automatons who, in the 18th century, impressed their audiences by playing chess… without knowing how to do anything else.
Google is deploying industrial generative AI, designed as an integrated infrastructure encompassing the entire value chain. Its ecosystem allows you to create content, but also to optimize it, distribute it to each point of contact and integrate it into a monitoring table. The AI model becomes a function in its own right which is inserted into an existing system, serving users.
Is this vision the right one? Difficult to say at present. But the approach is paying off: in the 3rd quarter of 2025, Alphabet achieved record turnover of $102.3 billion, up 16% compared to the previous year. At the same time, ChatGPT would have lost 12 billion… with a business model far from being consolidated.
OpenAI seems to have realized the problem: in October 2025, the tool officially became an integrated application platform. A revolution that transforms ChatGPT into an intelligent hub for productivity, and makes its interface the central control point for orchestrating interactions between different services. But isn’t it already too late?
ChatGPT has certainly captured the public’s attention, but Google controls usage through a more solid and resilient ecosystem. And, on the ground, that makes all the difference.
