The top startup announcement from Next ‘26

Google Cloud's Next '26 conference brought a wave of announcements targeting AI startups. Key highlights include the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform — a full lifecycle platform for building, scaling, governing, and optimizing multi-agent systems. The Agentic Data Cloud introduces Cross-Cloud Lakehouse, managed MCP servers for databases, and near-100% text-to-SQL accuracy tools. New compute options include TPU 8t/8i chips (up to 3x training performance, 80% better inference cost-efficiency), Axion N4A instances, and GKE Agent Sandbox with sub-second scaling. Security gets a boost via Google-Wiz integration with automated threat hunting and AI-APP protection. On the go-to-market side, startups can distribute agents via the Agent Gallery in Gemini Enterprise and tap into a new $750M partner innovation fund. A six-week AI Agents Challenge with $90,000 in prizes is also open globally until June 5, 2026.