Google unveils Gemini 4 'Argon' flagship model after months of delays
Google has announced 'Argon', a new top-tier AI model anchoring its Gemini 4 generation, claiming benchmark parity with OpenAI's Astra and Anthropic's Opus — but for now in limited release.
Google on Wednesday announced a new top-shelf artificial intelligence model, “Argon”, to anchor its new Gemini 4 generation of models, in a fresh bid to catch up with rivals Anthropic and OpenAI after months of delays.
Argon is larger in size than Google’s previous line of top-tier “Pro” models, a company spokesperson told Reuters. “It’s our most performant model yet built for complex workloads, and we see it comparable to frontier models like (OpenAI’s) Astra and (Anthropic’s) Opus on key coding and cyber benchmarks,” the spokesperson said.
For now, access is limited. Google said it was providing the model to select cybersecurity partners and participating in the Trump administration’s voluntary process for pre-release model access. It gave no timeline for a public release.
The launch follows a difficult summer for Google’s AI ambitions. The company had not released a new flagship since the Gemini 3 series in November 2025, while OpenAI advanced with GPT-6 and Anthropic with newer Claude models, according to VentureBeat. In August, Axios reported a major leadership shakeup at Google DeepMind, with Demis Hassabis stepping down as chief executive to become chairman and chief scientist at Alphabet and Jeff Dean departing to start a new company.
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