Google Cloud Next 2026: TPU v8, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, and the Tokenmaxxing Debate

Summary

Google Cloud Next 2026 delivered a major infrastructure announcement: TPU v8 in two variants — TPU 8t for training (nearly 3x compute over the previous generation) and TPU 8i for inference (1,152 TPUs per pod, optimized for multi-agent workloads). Google claimed the ability to "scale to a million TPUs in a single cluster," a figure that would represent unprecedented AI compute concentration. The Vertex AI platform was simultaneously upgraded into the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform with Agent S