Excellent analysis from Christian, linked here and below, about Google Cloud’s deal with Liberty Global to deploy its Gemini AI models into internal and external operations. The deal is pretty massive, spanning AI deployment, hardware distribution, network automation, and business services. It ‘touches’ about 80 million fixed and mobile connections across the likes of Virgin Media O2 in the UK, Telenet in Belgium, VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands, and Sunrise in Switzerland. “What makes this stand out is its sheer breadth – going from customer service chatbots all the way to data center capacity sharing to Pixel phones on retail shelves in [all] different countries,” writes Christian.

He has some good quotes from analysts, which note certain differences to other high-profile telco-AI projects in Europe: Gemini’s ‘native’ multimodal (text, audio, image, video) functionality (“rather than stitched-together models”) and the deep integration with Google services. “It extends Gemini’s reach directly onto billions of smartphones, TVs, routers, and smart-home devices, embedding AI at the point of daily consumer interaction,” says global consultancy Baringa. He has another quote, from wireless connectivity company Wifinium, which points to Google’s broader “ecosystem” proposition (“more like what Apple has done”) and its two-decade headstart with search data.

Christian writes: “For Google Cloud, it’s a meaningful beachhead in a sector where hyperscalers are actively competing for influence. For Liberty Global, it’s a deliberate bet that going deep with Google’s ecosystem – rather than staying vendor-agnostic – will yield faster progress and a more coherent tech stack. Whether the partnership delivers on its scope is going to hinge on execution across multiple countries, regulatory regimes, and operating companies over the next few years. But in an industry where AI partnerships are quickly becoming table stakes, the sheer breadth of this agreement distinguishes it from the narrower, more cautious deals.”