TLDR
- Google launched Gemini 4 Argon, a new AI model, on Wednesday.
- Alphabet stock rose about 2% in premarket trading Thursday.
- The stock gained roughly 1% in Wednesday’s regular trading and climbed near 2% after hours.
- Argon is priced at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, far cheaper than rival models.
- Google is rolling out Argon to cybersecurity researchers first, before expanding to developers and consumers.
Alphabet (GOOGL) stock climbed about 2% in premarket trading on Thursday. The move came after Google unveiled its newest AI model, Gemini 4 Argon.
The launch happened Wednesday afternoon. Alphabet’s stock had already gained roughly 1% in regular trading that day, after touching highs near 3% earlier in the session.
CEO Sundar Pichai posted about Argon on social media. He said teams at Google are already using it for tasks ranging from coding to quantum computing.
Today we’re introducing Gemini 4 Argon.
It delivers frontier performance in complex workflows across real-world software engineering, knowledge work, and cybersecurity defense with an industry-leading 1M token output limit. pic.twitter.com/oDaCoOLu5E
— Google (@Google) September 30, 2026
Google is not releasing Argon to everyone right away. The company is giving early access to cybersecurity researchers and paid API customers first.
Developers, businesses, and everyday consumers will get access later. Google AI Ultra subscribers are also in the first wave of users.
Pricing Undercuts Rivals
Argon’s pricing is a big part of the story. Google set it at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.
That is far cheaper than Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5, which costs $4 and $20 for the same measures. Claude Fable 5.1 costs even more, at $10 and $50.
Google is also offering a 95% discount on cached input tokens. The company hasn’t said how long this introductory pricing will last.
On benchmarks, Google says Argon scored 77.9% on the DeepSWE v1.1 coding test, a record. Jefferies analysts noted it still trails top models on the tougher FrontierSWE v2 test.
Argon did rank first for coding on LLM Arena’s Text Arena. It placed eighth on Code Arena: Web Dev, a jump of 21 spots from the earlier Gemini 3.8 Flash model.
Cybersecurity Is a Key Focus
Google built Argon with cybersecurity work in mind. The company says the model can find, verify, and fix software vulnerabilities on its own.
Jefferies said Argon tied Grok 4.7 for the top score of 68% on CWE-bench v1, a test for vulnerability fixes. Cybersecurity firm Wiz is already using Argon through its Scan for Good program.
Google also reported a lower rate of failed prompt-injection attacks for Argon, at 0.7%. That compares with 1% for both Claude Opus 5.5 and Fable 5.1, per Jefferies.
The model’s output limit jumped too. Argon can now handle up to 1 million tokens, up from 64,000, well above Anthropic’s 128,000 limit.
Jefferies rates Alphabet a “buy” with a $445 price target. The firm pointed out the stock had dropped 16% from its May 18 peak on fears Google was falling behind in the AI race.
The brokerage said real-world use still needs to confirm these early benchmark numbers. OpenAI and Anthropic did not respond to requests for comment on Argon’s claims.
The release follows a rocky stretch for Google’s DeepMind AI lab. Slower model releases, departures of key researchers, and weaker benchmark scores had fueled investor worries before Wednesday’s announcement.
Pichai attended a White House meeting on AI safety the same day as the launch. He and other tech executives signed a statement backing voluntary internal safety controls and outside reviews of their AI systems.
Google said it plans to keep tightening safeguards before Argon reaches the public. The company will monitor the model for misuse during the current limited rollout.
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