Google targets July 17 for Gemini 3.5 Pro after rebuild

Google Alphabet Inc. ↗ 0.89% DeepMind is reportedly targeting July 17 for the general availability launch of Gemini 3.5 Pro, after scrapping the model's original base architecture and executing an entirely new pre-training pipeline. The release was initially promised for June 2026 by CEO Sundar Pichai at Google I/O on May 19, when he told developers to "give us until next month."blog+1

A Delay and a Rebuild

Business Insider first reported in late June that Google had pushed the launch to July, citing a person familiar with the matter who said the company needed more time to gather feedback from early testers and tweak the model. The July 17 date emerged in early July from AI leaker sources, with technology outlet Geeky Gadgets reporting that DeepMind abandoned the 2.5 Pro base model entirely in favor of a new pre-training approach.businessinsider+1

According to that reporting, sourced to the YouTube channel Universe of AI, the rebuild targets specific performance gaps in mathematical reasoning, SVG scene generation, and image quality — areas where the original architecture was not competitive with rival models. The decision reflects what Geeky Gadgets described as DeepMind's recognition that the prior foundation could not match OpenAI's GPT-5.6 or Anthropic's Fable 5.geeky-gadgets

Contested Benchmark Claims

Leaked benchmark claims have circulated on social media suggesting the rebuilt Gemini 3.5 Pro outperforms Anthropic's Fable 5 in frontend and visual code generation tasks. However, these claims remain unverified and directly contradicted by separate leaks. One X post from a developer claimed a leaked LMSYS Chatbot Arena screenshot showed Gemini 3.5 Pro beating Fable 5 on an SVG coding task, while a different source reported the opposite result. Neither Google nor Anthropic has commented on any pre-release benchmark comparisons.Let's Data Science

Competitive Pressure Mounts

The delay comes amid intense competition. OpenAI reportedly planned to launch GPT-5.6 in early July, and Anthropic's Fable 5 has been available since June 9. Four senior Gemini researchers also departed for Anthropic in late June, adding to concerns about execution at Google's AI division.Bind AI+1

Gemini 3.5 Pro remains in limited Vertex AI enterprise preview, featuring a 2-million-token context window and Deep Think reasoning mode. Google has not officially confirmed the July 17 date, and one analysis site noted it remains "a rumor, not an official date."coursiv