At this week's Cloud Next conference in Las Vegas, Google is making a strong push into artificial intelligence. Surprisingly, it finally has a strategy and narrative that could position it as a leader in the new era of enterprise AI.

As AI appears ready to revolutionize everything in cloud computing, enterprises, and beyond, the third-ranked cloud service provider has launched a new AI processor along with a series of services aimed at creating autonomous AI capabilities, agent-to-agent protocols, enhanced search AI, and granting businesses access to its vast cloud infrastructure. Who would have remembered that just a year ago, Google was considered hopelessly behind in the AI race?

Tariff issues continue without any signs of resolution before the 2026 midterm elections. Although Trump made concessions on the broadest tariffs, causing a stock market rebound, it quickly reversed on Thursday. No one knows what will happen next.

While these tariffs may have impacted tech stocks and our 401(k) plans, they haven't slowed the influx of funding into AI - at least not yet. A16z is reportedly raising a $20 billion fund focused on AI, while Signalfire has secured $1 billion for early-stage AI startups. Mira Murati's Thinking Machines is also said to be raising $2 billion - in a seed round. But how long can this last? As The Wall Street Journal noted, tariffs are still affecting AI's boom.

Elon Musk's DOGE initiative plans to host a hackathon to rewrite IRS software.