Alphabet (GOOGL) Slips 2% Despite Gemini 4 Argon Outperforming OpenAI in 13 of 19 Tests

Key Highlights

• Alphabet (GOOGL) declined 2% in recent sessions despite positive analyst coverage from BNP Paribas.
• BNP Paribas maintained its Buy recommendation with a $420 price objective on GOOGL shares.
• The new Gemini 4 Argon model outperformed OpenAI and Anthropic competitors across 13 of 19 benchmark tests.
• Argon remains in limited testing phase with U.S. government agencies and select cybersecurity collaborators.
• Analyst consensus shows Strong Buy sentiment on GOOGL, with average price targets reaching $427.88—suggesting 27% potential gains.

Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) slipped 2% despite BNP Paribas analyst Nick Jones reaffirming his bullish stance on the tech giant. Jones maintained his $420 price objective following Google’s introduction of Gemini 4 Argon, the company’s latest artificial intelligence model.

Alphabet Inc., GOOGL

With a ranking of #223 among more than 12,500 Wall Street analysts, Jones emphasized that the release demonstrates Google’s continued commitment to remaining competitive in cutting-edge AI innovation.

In benchmark testing, Argon surpassed OpenAI’s Astra alongside Anthropic’s Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5 across 13 out of 19 evaluation criteria. These assessments spanned coding capabilities, cybersecurity defense, and multimodal processing tasks.

CEO Sundar Pichai shared on X that the model incorporates “frontier safeguards” and is being deployed gradually. Access is currently limited to U.S. government entities and select cybersecurity experts participating in Google’s Fairwind Program.

Pichai hinted at accelerated development ahead, noting that users will “see us iterating rapidly” with the Gemini platform in coming months.

Future Gemini 4 Developments

Jones anticipates that Google will introduce additional Gemini 4 variants across various pricing tiers. Each version would be optimized for specific use cases and budget constraints.

He also suggested the possibility of a consumer-oriented AI assistant. Such a product could mirror Meta’s Muse functionality while leveraging Google’s expansive ecosystem of applications and platforms.

This approach would capitalize on Google’s established infrastructure. Products like Search, Gmail, and Android already serve billions of users globally.

Google has announced pricing structure for Argon ahead of its public launch. The model will be available at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.

Cached input tokens will receive a substantial reduction—95% below the standard input rate.

Argon is already in active use within Google. Employees are deploying it for coding projects, research initiatives, and content creation tasks.

Delayed Launch Timeline

The model’s journey to release faced several obstacles. Initial expectations pointed to a June launch under the designation Gemini 3.5 Pro.

Google postponed the rollout to enhance coding capabilities and conduct comprehensive safety evaluations. The project was subsequently renamed Gemini 4 Argon during this extended development period.

These delays impacted investor confidence. Alphabet’s market capitalization has declined nearly 20% since the original timeline, with concerns mounting that Google was losing ground to OpenAI and Anthropic.

Nevertheless, Wall Street maintains robust confidence in the stock. GOOGL currently carries a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 24 Buy recommendations and four Hold ratings issued within the last three months.

Analyst price targets average $427.88 across coverage. This represents approximately 27% upside potential from present trading levels.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, Chief AI Architect at Google DeepMind, indicated the company continues gathering input from initial testers. Safety protocols are being fine-tuned before Argon becomes available to developers, enterprise clients, and general consumers.