TradingKey – On May 19, Eastern Time, at the 2026 I/O developer conference, Google ( GOOGL) launched a price war in the AI model race against rivals OpenAI and Anthropic.

Market reaction was relatively cautious. As of press time, Google shares rose 0.66% in pre-market trading, while Nasdaq 100 index futures gained 0.64%, suggesting that the market has not fully priced in this round of price cuts as a positive catalyst.

[Google shares rise pre-market; Source: Google Finance]

Google has implemented substantial price cuts for its AI subscription services, lowering the top-tier AI Ultra plan by 20% from $250 to $200 per month and introducing an entry-level AI Ultra tier at $100 per month, marking Google’s official acceleration into the premium…