Google is considering charging for AI-enhanced search features. If the big tech goes through with its plans to charge for internet searches with AI it would be a radical shift and the biggest shake-up in the company’s revenue model in its history.
Google’s iconic search engine has remained free to users, as advertising keeps the revenue flowing. Any fee charged to use Google’s search engine would be the first time that Google has made people pay for enhancements to its core search product. The company reported $175 billion in revenue from Search last year.
Financial Times reported on Google’s possible revenue shake-up, stating, “Google is looking at options including adding certain AI-powered search features to its premium subscription services, which already offer access to its new Gemini AI assistant in Gmail and Docs, according to three people with knowledge of its plans.”
The AI arms race is heating with big tech firms even raising pay to corner the market on AI talent. Recently, OpenAI and Microsoft announced plans to build a $100 billion data centre for AI training.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is spending billions of dollars on Nvidia’s popular computer chips, which are at the heart of artificial intelligence research and projects. Zuckerberg said the company’s “future roadmap” for AI requires it to build a “massive compute infrastructure.” By the end of 2024, Zuckerberg said that infrastructure will include 350,000 H100 graphics cards from Nvidia. If Meta were paying at the low end of the price range, that would amount to close to $9 billion in expenditures.
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