Google’s Gemini 3.5 Pro Delayed—Coding Fell Short, Bloomberg Says
In Brief
- Google’s flagship Gemini 3.5 Pro is months behind schedule, its coding skills short of internal targets, Bloomberg reports.
- Alphabet shares fell about 4% Thursday as OpenAI and Meta ship models that outpace Google on code.
- The slip follows a May I/O tease and a June-to-July delay, with engineers now leaving for rivals like Anthropic.
Alphabet shares sank roughly 4% on Thursday after a report that its most powerful AI model, Gemini 3.5 Pro, is “months behind schedule,” CNBC reports. Google is working to lift the model’s performance, especially its ability to write software, Globe and Mail reports.
The coding gap is the core problem. Gemini 3.5 Pro’s code-generation skills came in below what Google’s own teams expected, The Next Web reports, citing Bloomberg’s Thursday account. Bloomberg based its reporting on interviews with 10 current and former employees.
Rivals have moved faster. OpenAI and Meta have both shipped new models recently that beat Google’s current offerings at generating code, per CNBC. That pressure sharpens the stakes for a model Google once pitched as its frontline answer to the competition, and it lands as Google’s AI work powers partners like Apple’s models.
Gemini 3.5 Pro Release Timeline
Google first showed Gemini 3.5 Pro at its I/O developer conference in May, saying it was in internal use but not ready for a broad rollout. Business Insider reported in late June that the launch had already slipped from June to July as Google gathered tester feedback and tuned the model Business Insider reports.
The new reporting pushes that window far wider. Bloomberg now says the model is months, not weeks, behind, with no clear ship date. Google has not announced a revised release target.
Engineers Flee As Google Slips
The stall is rattling the ranks. Frustrated engineers and researchers fear Google is losing ground to rivals, and some are leaving for labs like Anthropic, The Next Web reports. The departures risk a brain-drain just as the coding race intensifies, with competitor labs such as xAI also shipping fast.
Google said in May it would widen access “the following month,” a promise now well past due. The company has not said when Gemini 3.5 Pro will reach the public.
FAQ
What is Gemini 3.5 Pro?
Gemini 3.5 Pro is Google’s most powerful flagship AI model, announced at I/O in May 2026 for advanced reasoning and code generation.
Why is the release delayed?
Its coding capabilities fell short of Google’s internal performance targets, prompting extra tuning time before a public rollout.
How did markets react?
Alphabet shares dropped about 4% on Thursday, July 16, 2026, after the Bloomberg report.
Which rivals are ahead on coding?
OpenAI and Meta have recently released models that outperform Google’s current offerings at writing software code. Gemini 3.5 Pro was first shown at Google I/O in May 2026.
