Stock Markets February 12, 2026

Alphabet Shares Gain as Gemini 3 Deep Think Receives Major Upgrade

Stock edges higher while company unveils expanded capabilities and selective API access for its advanced reasoning AI

By Leila Farooq GOOGL
Alphabet Shares Gain as Gemini 3 Deep Think Receives Major Upgrade
GOOGL

Alphabet shares rose 1% on Thursday, outpacing a broader technology decline, after the company announced a substantial update to its Gemini 3 Deep Think specialized reasoning system. The upgrade is being rolled out to premium subscribers and, for the first time, exposed via an API to a limited group of researchers and enterprises. Benchmarks cited by the company include strong results on several academic and problem-solving measures, and early users report practical utility in research and engineering tasks.

Key Points

  • Alphabet shares rose 1% Thursday even as the Nasdaq 100 fell 1.5%, following a major upgrade to Gemini 3 Deep Think.
  • The updated Gemini 3 Deep Think is available to Google AI Ultra subscribers via the Gemini app and is being offered via the Gemini API to select researchers and enterprises for the first time.
  • Benchmarks cited include 48.4% on "Humanity’s Last Exam" without tools, 84.6% on ARC-AGI-2, and gold-medal level results on the 2025 International Math, Physics, and Chemistry Olympiads; early testers have applied the system in research and engineering tasks.

Alphabet's stock climbed 1% on Thursday, bucking a wider tech downturn that pushed the Nasdaq 100 down 1.5%. The move followed the company's disclosure of a significant enhancement to its Gemini 3 Deep Think specialized reasoning mode, which Alphabet said is intended to tackle difficult problems in science, research, and engineering.

The company said the refreshed Gemini 3 Deep Think is available now to Google AI Ultra subscribers through the Gemini app. In a first for the product line, Alphabet is also offering access to the system via the Gemini API to a select set of researchers and enterprise customers.

Alphabet provided several benchmark results to illustrate the upgrade's performance. The updated system posted a 48.4% score on the test titled "Humanity’s Last Exam" when operating without external tools, and produced an 84.6% outcome on the ARC-AGI-2 benchmark. The company also reported gold-medal level performance on the International Math Olympiad 2025, and gold-level results on the written sections of both the 2025 International Physics and Chemistry Olympiads.

Beyond benchmarks, Alphabet highlighted early practical use cases. The company described one instance in which Lisa Carbone, a mathematician affiliated with Rutgers University, used Deep Think to review a technical mathematics paper; according to the company, the system detected a subtle logical error that had not been caught during human peer review.

Alphabet emphasized that the updated Deep Think is meant for applied engineering work as well as theoretical investigation. Among the capabilities cited is the tool's ability to convert sketches into models that can be prepared for 3D printing, signaling a use case that bridges conceptual design and physical prototyping.


Context for markets and users

The announcement arrived amid a broader pullback in technology shares, yet Alphabet's stock movement suggests investors viewed the upgrade as incrementally positive. Access limitations - availability to premium subscribers and a selective API rollout - mean the capabilities are not yet broadly accessible to all researchers or businesses.

Promotional offering noted with product claims

The company messaging appeared alongside an offer from a paid subscription product that promoted an AI-driven portfolio service, offering a 50% discount on subscriptions today. That product claims that two out of three global portfolios are currently outperforming their benchmarks year-to-date, with 88% of portfolios showing gains. It further states that a flagship strategy doubled the S&P 500 within an 18-month period, citing individual winners such as Super Micro Computer (+185%) and AppLovin (+157%).

Risks

  • Wider tech sector weakness could offset positive investor reaction to Alphabet-specific AI developments - impacts technology and equity markets.
  • Availability is currently limited to premium subscribers and a selective API rollout, which may constrain near-term adoption and enterprise deployment - impacts research and engineering sectors.
  • Practical examples cited are early and anecdotal, leaving uncertainty about the system's consistent performance across broader real-world use cases - impacts academia, research institutions, and engineering teams.

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