Cloud Next ‘25 Opening Keynote: The new way to cloud

Year: 2025 · ▶ Watch on YouTube

Thomas Kurian (CEO) · Sundar Pichai (CEO) · Chris Kempczinski (CEO) · Amin Vahdat (VP & GM, ML, Systems, and Cloud AI) · Jensen Huang (CEO) · Christian Sewing (CEO) · Marc Benioff (CEO) · Pali Bhat (Chief Product Officer) · Lisa O’Malley (Director, Product Management, Applied AI) · Brad Calder (VP & GM) · Sandra Joyce (VP, Mandiant Intelligence) · Jim Dolan (CEO & Exec Chairman)

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Segments (10)

  • 00:02:36 · Opening Remarks & Year in Review — Thomas Kurian
    • Thomas Kurian kicks off the event, recapping a year of significant growth and innovation across Google Cloud and Workspace, setting the stage for major AI announcements.
  • 00:05:10 · The AI Innovation Stack — Sundar Pichai
    • Sundar Pichai details Google’s full-stack approach to AI innovation, from custom silicon and infrastructure to foundational models like Gemini 2.5.
  • 00:16:15 · The New Way to Cloud — Thomas Kurian
    • Thomas Kurian outlines Google Cloud’s core strategy: an AI-optimized platform, open multicloud capabilities, and a design built for interoperability.
  • 00:18:32 · AI Infrastructure and Hypercomputer — Amin Vahdat
    • Amin Vahdat dives deep into Google’s AI Hypercomputer, announcing new TPUs, GPUs, storage solutions, and software enhancements to power next-generation AI workloads.
  • 00:26:01 · Models and Vertex AI — Thomas Kurian
    • Thomas Kurian showcases advancements in Google’s generative media models (Imagen, Lyria, Veo) and the expansion of the Vertex AI Model Garden.
  • 00:46:39 · The Rise of Agents — Thomas Kurian
    • Thomas Kurian introduces the concept of AI agents as intelligent systems and announces new frameworks and protocols to build and manage them.
  • 01:01:58 · Customer Agents — Lisa O’Malley
    • Lisa O’Malley details how purpose-built customer agents are transforming industries like retail and healthcare, and announces the next-generation Customer Engagement Suite.
  • 01:16:25 · Data Agents — Brad Calder
    • Brad Calder explains how Data Agents in BigQuery and other tools are simplifying data engineering, data science, and analytics for all users.
  • 01:29:38 · Security Agents — Sandra Joyce
    • Sandra Joyce introduces Security Agents and the Google Unified Security (GUS) platform, which integrates threat intelligence and AI to automate security operations.
  • 01:36:27 · Closing Remarks — Thomas Kurian
    • Thomas Kurian concludes the keynote by summarizing the ‘new way to cloud,’ announcing the acquisition of Wiz, and confirming the dates for Next ‘26.

Products Announced (23)

  • 00:07:48 · Cloud Wide Area Network (WAN) (Coming Soon)
    • Leverages Google’s global private network for enterprises · 40% faster performance compared to public internet · Reduces total cost of ownership by up to 40%
    • Will be available to all Google Cloud customers later this month.
  • 00:08:42 · Ironwood TPU (Coming Soon)
    • 7th generation of Google’s Tensor Processing Unit · 3600x better performance than the first publicly available TPU · 29x more energy efficient
    • Coming later this year.
  • 00:09:28 · Willow Quantum Chip (State-of-the-art)
    • Solves a key challenge in quantum error correction · Reduces errors exponentially as qubits scale · Paves the way for a useful, large-scale quantum computer
    • Research/Future development.
  • 00:12:10 · Gemini 2.5 Pro (Preview)
    • Advanced ‘thinking’ model that reasons through its thoughts · State-of-the-art across reasoning and knowledge benchmarks · Can generate robust, interactive code simulations
    • Available now in Preview in AI Studio, Vertex AI, and the Gemini app.
  • 00:12:25 · Gemini 2.5 Flash (Coming Soon)
    • Low-latency and most cost-efficient model · Includes ‘thinking’ capabilities built-in · Allows users to balance performance with budget
    • Coming soon in AI Studio, Vertex AI, and the Gemini app.
  • 00:20:45 · A4X and A4 VMs (Preview / Coming Soon)
    • Powered by NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 · Powered by NVIDIA B200 Blackwell GPU · First cloud provider to offer both options
    • A4X in Preview, A4 VMs coming soon.
  • 00:21:09 · Cluster Director (General Availability)
    • Easily deploy and manage large compute clusters · Manage a large number of accelerators as a single unit · Improves performance, efficiency, and resilience
    • Generally Available.
  • 00:21:31 · Hyperdisk Exapools (Preview)
    • Highest aggregate performance and capacity block storage · Designed per AI cluster · Offered by any hyperscaler
    • Available in Preview.
  • 00:21:40 · Cloud Storage Anywhere Cache (General Availability)
    • Consistent zonal cache · Reduces latency up to 70% · Maximizes goodput
    • Generally Available.
  • 00:21:45 · Rapid Storage (Preview)
    • Zonal bucket for AI workloads · 6 TB/s throughput · 5x lower latency for random reads/writes
    • Available in Preview.
  • 00:22:10 · GKE Inference Gateway (Preview)
    • Model-aware gateway · Optimized for intelligent routing and load balancing · Reduces serving costs by up to 30%
    • Available in Preview.
  • 00:22:18 · Pathways on Google Cloud (New)
    • Google’s own distributed ML runtime · Powers Gemini model training and serving · Enables state-of-the-art multi-host inferencing
    • Now available for the first time for cloud customers.
  • 00:31:05 · Lyria (Available)
    • Transforms text prompts into 30-second music clips · First hyperscaler to offer this capability · Generative music model
    • Available today on Google Cloud.
  • 00:43:35 · Meta Llama 4 on Vertex AI (General Availability)
    • Fully managed service for Meta’s Llama 4 model · Available in the Vertex AI Model Garden
    • Generally Available.
  • 00:49:15 · Agent Development Kit (Open Source)
    • Open Source framework to build multi-agent systems · Simplifies building sophisticated Gemini-powered agents · Supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP)
    • Available as Open Source.
  • 00:50:08 · Agent2Agent Protocol (New Protocol)
    • Allows agents to communicate with each other · Works regardless of the underlying model or framework · Supported by many leading partners
    • New protocol announced.
  • 00:50:46 · Google Agentspace (New)
    • Puts AI agents in the hands of every employee · Combines Google-quality search, conversational AI, and agents · Personalized and authenticated experience
    • Announced as a new platform.
  • 01:05:30 · Next-generation Customer Engagement Suite (Coming Soon)
    • Human-like voices and emotion understanding · Streaming video support for virtual agents · No-code interface for building custom agents
    • Coming soon.
  • 01:19:55 · Data Agents (New)
    • Specialized agents for Data Engineering, Data Science, and Data Analysis · Acts as a coding partner in data science notebooks · Performs conversational analytics
    • Announced as a new category of agents.
  • 01:28:42 · Gemini Code Assist Agents (Preview)
    • Assistance with tasks across the development lifecycle · Modernizes codebases · Interacts with developers on a Kanban board
    • Available in Preview.
  • 01:31:00 · Security Agents (Coming Soon)
    • Malware Analysis agent powered by Google Threat Intelligence · Alert Triage agent powered by Google Security Operations · Speeds up security investigations
    • Coming soon.
  • 01:32:16 · Google Unified Security (GUS) (New)
    • Converged security solution · Integrates threat intelligence, SecOps, Chrome, and Mandiant · Runs on a planet-scale Security Data Fabric
    • Announced as a new platform.
  • 01:36:40 · Wiz Acquisition (Announced)
    • Leading multi-cloud security platform · Provides better cybersecurity alternatives for businesses and governments
    • Definitive agreement signed.

Customer Stories (42)

  • 00:05:26 · Sphere Entertainment Co. — Collaborating with Google AI to reintroduce ‘The Wizard of Oz’ for a new generation on the Las Vegas Sphere.
  • 00:08:04 · Citadel Securities — Using the new Cloud Wide Area Network for faster, more reliable solutions.
  • 00:08:05 · Nestle — Using the new Cloud Wide Area Network for faster, more reliable solutions.
  • 00:14:52 · McDonald’s — Transforming restaurant experience with Google Cloud, using Edge Computing and Gemini on Vertex AI to improve operations and customer interactions.
  • 00:23:35 · Anthropic — AI unicorn trusting Google Cloud’s infrastructure.
  • 00:23:42 · Toyota — Deployed ML models for factory workers, saving 10k employee hours per year.
  • 00:23:47 · Schrödinger — Using Cloud GPUs for advanced drug discovery.
  • 00:23:50 · TSMC — Using Google Cloud for data protection for mission-critical workloads.
  • 00:23:56 · Airbus — Deployed an AI platform to advance aircraft performance, safety, and reliability.
  • 00:27:12 · Box — Using Gemini 2.5 for new applications.
  • 00:27:14 · Palo Alto Networks — Using Gemini 2.5 for new applications.
  • 00:27:41 · Rivian — Using Gemini in Workspace to enhance productivity.
  • 00:27:43 · Freshfields — Using Gemini in Workspace to enhance legal work and expedite tasks like document drafting.
  • 00:27:51 · Schwarz Group — Migrating to Google Workspace for a secure way for employees to work.
  • 00:32:41 · Kraft Heinz — Speeding up campaign creation from 8 weeks to 8 hours using generative media models.
  • 00:32:46 · Agoda — Creating unique visuals of travel destinations using generative media models.
  • 00:32:51 · Bending Spoons — Making photo editing more fun using generative media models.
  • 00:32:57 · L’Oréal Group — Generating diverse, cinematic shots for marketing using generative media models.
  • 00:45:00 · Deutsche Bank — Built ‘DB Lumina,’ an AI-powered research agent on Gemini and Vertex AI, to provide faster, more accurate analysis for clients.
  • 00:47:31 · Salesforce — Expanding partnership to integrate Gemini into Agentforce for augmented human productivity.
  • 01:00:36 · Reddit — Launched ‘Reddit Answers,’ a new AI-powered search product using Vertex AI Search to provide answers grounded in authentic user conversations.
  • 01:02:42 · Lowe’s — Revolutionizing product discovery with Vertex AI Search to generate dynamic product recommendations.
  • 01:02:53 · Globo — Created a recommendations experience in its streaming platform that more than doubled video plays.
  • 01:03:02 · Mercado Libre — Deployed Vertex AI Search to help 100 million customers find products they love faster, delivering millions in incremental revenue.
  • 01:04:11 · DBS Bank — Reducing customer call handling times by 20% with the Customer Engagement Suite.
  • 01:04:21 · loveholidays — Saving 20% of their customer service cost per year with the Customer Engagement Suite.
  • 01:04:26 · YouTube — Achieved a 75% reduction of calls abandoned in the queue using the Customer Engagement Suite.
  • 01:04:40 · Verizon — Using the Customer Engagement Suite to provide instant, personalized information to 28,000 care representatives, reducing wait times.
  • 01:12:16 · Wendy’s — Using the Food Ordering AI Agent to handle 60,000 daily drive-thru orders.
  • 01:12:22 · Mercedes-Benz — Using the Automotive AI Agent to provide conversational search and navigation in the new CLA series.
  • 01:12:29 · The Home Depot — Built ‘Magic Apron,’ an agent that offers expert home improvement guidance 24/7.
  • 01:18:51 · Mattel — Using BigQuery and Gemini to synthesize millions of points of consumer feedback to improve products like the Barbie Dreamhouse elevator.
  • 01:20:50 · Spotify — Using BigQuery to handle massive scale and deliver personalized experiences to over 675 million users.
  • 01:21:11 · Unilever — Using BigQuery to reach millions of retailers in emerging markets.
  • 01:21:17 · Bayer — Built a data agent that predicts flu trends using BigQuery.
  • 01:21:28 · Nuro — Using AlloyDB with vector search to identify challenging scenarios on the road for its autonomous vehicles.
  • 01:21:38 · State of Nevada — Using data agents to speed up unemployment benefit claims processing.
  • 01:31:12 · Charles Schwab — Using Google SecOps to stay proactive in responding to cyber threats and gain new visibility.
  • 01:31:26 · Vertiv — Detecting more events and closing investigations faster with Google SecOps.
  • 01:31:34 · Dun & Bradstreet — Using Security Command Center to centralize monitoring of AI security threats.
  • 01:31:41 · Vodafone — Using Vertex AI and open source tools to establish an AI security governance layer for 70k users.
  • 01:31:54 · Government of Singapore — Using Google Cloud Web Risk to protect citizens’ online activity.

Competitor Mentions / Comparisons (5)

  • 00:11:01 · vs OpenAI — A benchmark chart for ‘Humanity’s Last Exam’ showed Gemini 2.5 Pro Exp outperforming OpenAI GPT 4.5 and o3-mini.
  • 00:11:01 · vs Anthropic — A benchmark chart for ‘Humanity’s Last Exam’ showed Gemini 2.5 Pro Exp outperforming Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
  • 00:23:12 · vs OpenAI — A slide claimed Gemini 2.0 Flash achieves 24x higher intelligence per dollar than GPT-4o.
  • 00:43:35 · vs Meta — Announced the general availability of Meta’s Llama 4 model on the Vertex AI Model Garden.
  • 01:18:52 · vs Snowflake / Databricks — A slide claimed BigQuery has 5x more customers than the ‘two leading independent data cloud companies,’ implicitly referring to Snowflake and Databricks.

Benchmarks Shown (6)

  • 00:08:50 · Google TPU Progress: Performance by Generation: 4.11 (2023)
    • Shows exponential growth from 0.01 in 2018 to 4.11 in 2023.
  • 00:09:05 · Ironwood TPU Performance: 3600x
    • Compared to Google’s first publicly available TPU in 2018.
  • 00:11:01 · Humanity's Last Exam: 18.2%
    • Outperforms OpenAI GPT 4.5 (5.4%), Claude 3.7 Sonnet (8.0%), DeepSeek R1 (8.5%), and OpenAI o3-mini (13.4%).
  • 00:19:43 · Ironwood TPU Pod Performance: 42.5 ExaFLOPS
    • States the world’s #1 supercomputer supports 1.7 ExaFLOPS, making Ironwood pods over 24x more powerful.
  • 00:23:12 · Gemini 2.0 Flash Efficiency: 24x higher
    • Compared to OpenAI’s GPT-4o.
  • 01:18:52 · BigQuery Customer Base: 5x more
    • Compared to the two leading independent data cloud companies combined.

Commitments (2)

  • 00:06:45 (2025) — Alphabet plans to invest approximately $75 billion in total capex, directed towards servers and data centers for AI compute and cloud.
  • 01:39:44 (April 22-24, 2026) — Google Cloud Next will return to Las Vegas.

Demos (5)

  • 00:11:16 ✓ · Gemini 2.5 Pro Code Simulation — Sundar Pichai (narrating)
    • A demonstration of Gemini 2.5 Pro simulating a complex, interactive 3D Rubik’s cube coded by a developer, showcasing its advanced reasoning and code generation capabilities.
  • 00:51:37 ✓ · Google Agentspace — Gabe Weiss
    • A live demo of Google Agentspace from the perspective of a bank relationship manager, showing how multiple agents (Client Risk & Opportunity, Deep Research, Cash Flow) can be used and created via natural language to analyze a client portfolio, identify risks, and take action.
  • 01:06:25 ✓ · Customer Engagement Suite — Patrick Marlow
    • A live demo of a customer interacting with a virtual agent for a home and garden store via voice and video call. The agent identified a plant, recommended better products, escalated to a human for a discount, and scheduled a landscaping service.
  • 01:22:26 ✓ · Data Science Agent in BigQuery — Yasmeen Ahmad
    • A live demo using BigQuery Data Canvas and Notebooks where a Data Science Agent, prompted by natural language, joined tables from SAP, Salesforce, and Google Ads, cleaned the data, performed multimodal analysis on PDF invoices, and built a cash flow forecast.
  • 01:32:45 ✓ · Google Unified Security (GUS) — Payal Chakravarty & Nav Jagpal
    • A live demo where a developer (Nav) introduces security risks (a malicious Chrome extension, a misconfigured firewall), which are automatically detected, triaged, and remediated by the GUS platform, guided by a security analyst (Payal).

Notable Quotes (4)

  • 00:05:16 — Sundar Pichai:

    Last year, I joked in my remarks about how I was auditioning for the Sphere. Well, turns out I got the gig.

  • 01:27:52 — Yasmeen Ahmad:

    And that my friends, is the future of data science made… easy!

  • 01:35:54 — Nav Jagpal:

    You know, as a developer, it really gives me peace of mind knowing that GUS has my back at all times.

  • 01:39:14 — Thomas Kurian:

    We are honored to be building this new way to cloud with each of you.

Visual Signals

On-screen (10)

  • 00:00:06 · Are you ready for what's next?
    • Sets the theme for the keynote, focusing on future innovations.
  • 00:01:14 · Why not?
    • The central marketing theme of the opening ad, encouraging ambitious thinking.
  • 00:03:12 · 3,000+ product advancements
    • Quantifies the pace of innovation at Google Cloud over the past year.
  • 00:06:45 · Alphabet Capital Expenditure approx. $75B
    • A major financial commitment to building out AI and cloud infrastructure for 2025.
  • 00:08:42 · New Ironwood
    • Announces the 7th generation of Google’s custom TPU silicon.
  • 00:12:10 · Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview
    • Announces the immediate preview availability of their most advanced model.
  • 00:49:15 · New Agent Development Kit
    • Announces a new open-source framework for building multi-agent systems.
  • 01:32:16 · Google Unified Security
    • Announces a new, converged security platform integrating multiple Google security products.
  • 01:36:40 · Google Cloud + Wiz
    • Announces the definitive agreement to acquire the multi-cloud security company Wiz.
  • 01:39:44 · The new way to cloud.
    • The final tagline summarizing the keynote’s theme.

Stage (7)

  • 00:02:36 · Thomas Kurian walks onto the stage to applause after the opening video.
  • 00:04:59 · Sundar Pichai walks on stage and shakes hands with Thomas Kurian.
  • 00:14:41 · A pre-recorded video of McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski is played.
  • 00:25:08 · A pre-recorded video of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is played.
  • 00:51:37 · Gabe Weiss walks on stage to a small podium with two monitors for the Agentspace demo.
  • 01:06:25 · Patrick Marlow walks on stage with a planter box of flowers for his customer service demo.
  • 01:39:51 · The keynote ends with a wide shot of the arena, the ‘Google Cloud Next 25’ logo, and upbeat music.

Visual demos (4)

  • 00:51:53 · Google Agentspace Demo
    • A clean, white user interface with a central chat/prompt box. The left navigation shows icons for different agents. Responses are generated in a conversational thread, including tables and links to sources. The demo shows seamless transitions between different agents within the same conversation.
  • 01:07:08 · Customer Engagement Suite Demo
    • A split screen showing a retail website on the left and a mobile-like customer service agent interface on the right. The demo shows a voice call turning into a video call, with the agent’s UI updating with product recommendations and service offerings in real-time.
  • 01:22:40 · Data Science Agent Demo
    • A BigQuery interface (Data Canvas and Notebook). The user types natural language prompts into a ‘Data Science Agent’ chat window at the bottom. The agent automatically generates and applies data transformations, creates visualizations (bar charts, heatmaps), and writes Python code in the notebook.
  • 01:33:33 · Google Unified Security (GUS) Demo
    • A dark-themed security dashboard showing a centralized risk view and an AI inventory graph. The demo then pivots to a case management view where an AI-generated investigation summary, timeline, and automated response playbooks are displayed and executed.

Key Topics

Generative AI · AI Agents · Multi-agent Systems · AI Infrastructure · Google Gemini Model Family · Vertex AI Platform · Data Analytics · Cloud Security · Customer Experience AI · Developer Productivity · Multimodality · Open Ecosystem · Custom Silicon (TPU)

Takeaways

  • Google is all-in on ‘AI Agents,’ announcing a full stack for building, managing, and deploying them, from the open-source Agent Development Kit to the employee-facing Google Agentspace.
  • The Gemini model family continues to expand with Gemini 2.5 Pro (featuring ‘thinking’ capabilities) and the cost-efficient Gemini 2.5 Flash, alongside powerful generative media models like Veo 2 and Lyria.
  • Significant investments in AI infrastructure are a top priority, highlighted by the announcement of the 7th-gen ‘Ironwood’ TPU, new NVIDIA GPU offerings, and a new ‘Cloud Wide Area Network’ to bring Google’s private network to enterprises.
  • Google is introducing ‘Google Unified Security’ (GUS), a converged platform that integrates its security portfolio (Mandiant, SecOps, Chrome) with AI to automate threat detection and response.
  • The concept of ‘The new way to cloud’ is defined by three pillars: an AI-optimized platform, an open multicloud approach, and a foundation built for interoperability with existing systems and third-party tools.
  • Purpose-built agents are being deployed across industries, with specific solutions for Customer Service, Data, Security, and Creative workflows, demonstrated by numerous customer stories from McDonald’s to Deutsche Bank.
  • Data and analytics are being infused with AI, with new Data Agents in BigQuery that can perform complex analysis, generate code, and handle multimodal data (like PDFs) through natural language prompts.