From Google Cloud’s rapid agentic and Gemini innovations to Google’s $32 billion upcoming acquisition of security star Wiz, here are the 10 biggest Google Cloud news stories of 2025.
From Google’s $32 billion upcoming acquisition of Wiz to rapid Gemini and agentic AI innovationthere was no shortage of huge news stories from Google Cloud throughout 2025.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based cloud giant has been growing sales at a fast pace in 2025 while investing billions in AI infrastructure and launching a slew of new AI product innovations—from Agent2Agent Protocol to Gemini Enterprise.
“The first wave of AI, while promising, has been stuck in silos, unable to orchestrate complex work across an entire organization,” said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in a recent blog post. “True transformation requires a comprehensive platform that connects to your context, your workflows and your people. That’s why we are proud to introduce Gemini Enterprise: the new front door for AI in the workplace.”
From layoffs to channel partners, CRN breaks down the 10 biggest Google Cloud news stories of 2025 that every customer, investor and partner should know about.
[Related: The 10 Coolest Agentic AI Platforms And AI Products Of 2025]
No. 10: Google Cloud’s $61 Billion Run Rate
Google Cloud generated total sales of $15.2 billion in the third quarter of 2025, meaning the cloud company has a record $61 billion annual run rate.
Google Cloud’s record-breaking $15.2 billion quarter represents a 34 percent sales increase year over year, which outpaced both AWS and Microsoft.
One key win for Google Cloud has been on the operating income front. For the third quarter of 2025, the company generated a record $3.6 billion in operating income, up 85 percent from $1.9 billion year over year.
The company has cemented a 13 percent market share stake in 2025 in terms of global cloud computing market share.
Click through to read the other nine biggest Google Cloud news stories of 2025.
No. 9: Google Cloud Layoffs Light In 2025 Compared With AWS And Microsoft
Overall in 2025, Google Cloud conducted only a few small layoff rounds compared with its main rivals, AWS and Microsoft.
While Microsoft and AWS both confirmed thousands of job cuts per layoff round in 2025—including a 14,000 layoff round at Amazon that impacted some AWS employees, as well as Microsoft’s recent 9,000 layoff round—Google Cloud has remained relatively quiet on the layoff front this year.
In September, Google Cloud laid off hundreds of workers in user experience roles, such as employees tasked with working on design and user experience research.
There were also several hundred confirmed layoffs from Google Cloud parent company Alphabet over the past year, but nothing significant in its cloud unit.
No. 8: Google Cloud Doubles Down On OpenAI And Anthropic
OpenAI and Anthropic are two of the biggest AI startup companies in the world when it comes to generative and agentic AI.
This year, Anthropic reached a deal to access 1 million Google Cloud chips to train and run its AI models in a move to forge closer ties with Google. Anthropic will have access to over 1 gigawatt of AI computing capacity online in 2026 for the startup using Google’s custom TPU chips.
Until January 2025, OpenAI was using Microsoft as its exclusive data center provider. However, OpenAI this year said a lack of compute capacity had delayed several products.
In June, OpenAI unveiled a new deal with Google Cloud where the startup will use Google’s cloud infrastructure to power and innovate its popular ChatGPT AI assistant.
“With respect to OpenAI, we are very excited to be partnering with them on Google Cloud,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai this year. “Google Cloud is an open platform, and we have a strong history of supporting great companies, startups, AI labs, etc. … we look forward to investing more in that relationship and growing that.”
No. 7: Google’s Gemini Innovation Roars; Gemini 3 Launches
Nearly two years ago, Google launched Gemini, one of the company’s biggest scientific and product endeavors. The cloud giant has been investing heavily in launching new versions of Gemini ever since.
The Gemini app has now surpassed 650 million users per month, with more than 70 percent of Google Cloud customers using Gemini, along with 13 million developers who have built solutions with Google’s generative models.
In November, Google launched Gemini 3, a new series of models that Google says is its most intelligent and factually accurate AI system yet.
Google is giving every user access to its new flagship AI model—Gemini 3 Pro, which is natively multimodal so it can process text, images and audio all at once rather than separately.
“Gemini 3 is state-of-the-art in reasoning, built to grasp depth and nuance—whether it’s perceiving the subtle clues in a creative idea, or peeling apart the overlapping layers of a difficult problem,” said Google CEO Pichai in a statement. “Gemini 3 is also much better at figuring out the context and intent behind your request, so you get what you need with less prompting.”
From the first iteration of Gemini to launching Gemini 3 within two years, the importance of Gemini for Google is paramount.
No. 6: Google Cloud Marketplace Expands
The Google Cloud Marketplace expanded significantly this year in the amount of AI offers on the online marketplace as well as partners driving customer wins.
This year, Google’s cloud marketplace provided customers with more control, better governance and predictable pricing models, as well as faster time-to-value through simplified procurement and deployment advancements.
The marketplace now gives customers access to specialized AI agents and agent tools with Gemini-powered natural language to search and discover partner-built agents.
For AI agent builders, the marketplace now offers co-selling opportunities and better global customer reach to help builders monetize AI innovations through Google Cloud’s global distribution.
Google Cloud launched dozens of new cybersecurity integrated solutions on the marketplace this year from security leaders like CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks and Menlo Security.
“We have the second-largest marketplace and the fastest growing by far when it comes to sheer volume and, ultimately, the number of folks that are involved in that,” Google Cloud President of Global Revenue Matt Renner told CRN this year. “We’re seeing the marketplace demand across the customers very strongly.”
No. 5: Google Pours Tens Of Billions Into New Data Centers
Google has been one of the largest spenders on building new data centers to power its cloud and AI technology as well as increase its customer reach. The company has committed tens of billions of dollars this year to building new data centers both in America and overseas.
Just this month, Google unveiled it will invest $40 billion to build new data centers in two Texas counties.
In October, Google unveiled a $15 billion investment in India to build a new AI-powered data center as part of a massive undertaking to create a global network of Google AI data centers.
The company announced last month a $9 billion investment in South Carolina to expand its Berkeley County data center campus and support the continued construction of two new sites in the region.
So far in 2025, Google has announced a $4 billion data center investment in Arkansas; $7 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure in Iowa; $9 billion in data centers in Oklahoma; and another $9 billion in Virginia.
Outside America, Google has also unveiled a $5 billion AI and data center investment in the U.K., as well as a similar $5 billion investment in Belgium.
“With strong and growing demand for our cloud products and services, we are increasing our investment in capital expenditures in 2025 to approximately $85 billion and are excited by the opportunity ahead,” said Google CEO Pichai in August.
No. 4: Key Executive Hires And Departures Of 2025
Google Cloud saw some major executive departures this year while also hiring top talent from across the IT industry. Here are a few of the highlights.
Google Cloud hired longtime top tech executive Francis deSouza (pictured) as its new COO. Throughout deSouza’s nearly four-decade IT career, he’s held top positions including president of product and services for Symantec and CEO of biotechnology firm Illumina.
Jerry Dischler, Google’s president of cloud applications and leader of Google Workspace, left after nearly two decades of working at the tech giant. Dischler was president of Google’s cloud applications and oversaw the company’s Workspace collaboration software suite as well as integrating AI tools into customers’ environments.
Longtime Microsoft executive Hayete Gallot become Google Cloud’s new president of customer experience for Google’s global commercial business. Gallot was with Microsoft for 16 years and was critical in running Microsoft’s go-to-market plan for its commercial segments while also managing the company’s 150 innovation centers worldwide.
Google Cloud lost its cybersecurity business leader, general manager and vice president Sunil Potti, this year. Potti was involved with major product launches including the debut of Chronicle Security Operations as well as several GenAI-powered security offerings.
Accenture’s CTO, Karthik Narain, joined Google Cloud this year in a move to accelerate Google’s AI customer push. Narain is now Google Cloud’s new chief product and business officer after a decade of helping lead Accenture’s technology vision and strategy.
Google Cloud lost one of its cloud marketplace leaders in Stephen Orban, who left for Databricks. Orban was the cloud company’s vice president of migrations, ISVs and the Google Cloud Marketplace
One of Microsoft’s highest-ranking channel executives, David Smith, left for Google Cloud this year. Smith was at Microsoft for 27 years and most recently was its vice president of worldwide channel sales before joining Google Cloud as an ecosystem executive this month.
No. 3: Google’s Biggest AI Launch Of 2025 Is Gemini Enterprise
Google launched its new Gemini Enterprise agentic AI platform this year, aiming to transform the AI industry.
“What we’re doing is bringing AI to everyone by providing them a single front door through which they can chat with all of their enterprise data, search for information and use agents to do a variety of tasks on their behalf,” said Google Cloud CEO Kurian in a pre-briefing this year.
Gemini Enterprise brings together several AI technologies including Google’s Gemini models, first- and third-party AI agents, and core conversational AI and orchestration innovation from Google technology formerly known as Agentspace.
The new Gemini Enterprise securely connects to customers’ data wherever it lives, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft SharePoint to business applications like Salesforce and SAP.
Gemini Enterprise includes a no-code workbench so any user—such as marketers and financial teams—can analyze information and orchestrate agents to automate processes across an organization.
Combined with Google DeepMind’s models and customers’ own corporate data, agents can access and synthesize information from internal systems as well as Google AI tools like Code Assist and Deep Research within a single enterprise workflow.
Gemini Enterprise Standard and Plus editions annual plans start at $30 per seat, per month. Gemini Business annual plans start at $21 per seat, per month.
No. 2: Google’s Upcoming $32 Billion Wiz Acquisition
In a blockbuster cybersecurity move, Google unveiled plans this year to acquire security star Wiz for $32 billion with the goal of integrating Wiz into Google Cloud.
Google’s plan is to improve Google’s Cloud cybersecurity technologies and capabilities around multi-cloud systems.
“This will help spur the adoption of multi-cloud cybersecurity, the use of multi-cloud, and competition and growth in cloud computing,” said Google Cloud CEO Kurian earlier this year.
The merged company will look to help customers create a stronger foundation for cloud security with a portfolio including a unified security platform that combines Wiz’s Cloud Security Platform with Google Security Operations.
“We are aiming to provide customers with better security for enterprise systems and lower the cost of maintaining a strong security posture across their on-premises and multi-cloud environments,” said Kurian.
The deal is expected to officially close in the first half of 2026.
No. 1: Google Cloud Turns R&D And Innovation Engine Toward Agentic AI With Partners Leading The Way
Google Cloud’s CEO left no doubt that his company would shift its AI strategy and innovation toward AI agents and agentic AI in 2025.
“Agentic AI is the biggest opportunity for partners, with billions of dollars of economic impact in terms of productivity from delivering agents within customers,” Kurian (pictured) told CRN in April. “That’s where we see the future.”
Google Cloud has been linking together many of its AI technologies throughout the AI stack—from its AI-accelerating TPUs and Gemini LLMs to its AI Agent Builder technology and Workspace end-user portfolio.
“We have our own DeepMind AI research team that’s building first-party models and agents that allow us to iterate quicker to advance the boundaries, while other companies tend to depend on third parties,” Kurian said.
The tip of the spear for Google Cloud’s agentic AI charge has been channel partners.
“We are substantially expanding our investment in the channel in 2025,” said Kurian. “We are monetarily investing a lot more in our partner ecosystem to build AI solutions on top of our platform. Because we enable an open platform and interoperability, it allows the addressable market for our solutions to be as wide as possible, which, in turn, is creating a lot of opportunities for our partners.”
From launching new AI agents and Gemini models to revamping Workspace and its Search engine with AI, 2025 was the year Google Cloud planted its stake in the ground as an agentic AI global leader.