Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince has ignited a fiery debate within the artificial intelligence industry. He makes a bold claim that Google holds a massive, unfair advantage over competitors like OpenAI and Microsoft. This advantage stems entirely from Google's privileged access to web data.
The Stark Numbers Behind Google's Data Dominance
Speaking on a recent podcast episode, Prince laid out the hard numbers. He revealed that Google's web crawler, Googlebot, sees far more of the internet than its rivals. According to his analysis, Googlebot accesses 3.2 times more web pages than OpenAI's systems. The gap with Microsoft is even wider, with Google enjoying 4.8 times greater access. Other AI firms, including Anthropic, operate at levels similar to Microsoft, trailing significantly behind the search giant.
"For every single page that OpenAI manages to see, Google is seeing 3.2 pages," Prince stated. This simple comparison underscores the immense scale of Google's reach across the digital world.
How Search Dominance Created a Data Fortress
Prince directly attributes this huge lead to Google's long history of dominating online search. Because of this, countless websites have granted Googlebot special permissions. These permissions allow it to crawl behind paywalls and enter restricted sections of the internet that remain off-limits to others.
He pointed to common website files like robots.txt as clear evidence. These files often show that Google maintains exclusive access to areas where competitors are explicitly blocked. "Everyone has let them behind their paywall. Everyone has let them see parts of the internet that no one else sees," Prince noted emphatically.
The Cloudflare CEO argued that in the high-stakes race to build powerful AI, data is now the ultimate currency. He believes the volume and quality of training data matter more than advanced computer chips or even top engineering talent. Prince suggested that Alphabet's Gemini model continues to outperform rivals primarily because of this superior data access. "Whoever has the most data wins in the era of AI," he declared.
Regulatory Questions and a Call for Fair Play
This significant imbalance raises serious questions about competition. Prince hinted that regulators may need to step in. To create a level playing field, they might have to either limit Google's leverage or mandate equal data access for all competitors.
Gemini 3's Rise Highlights the Data Advantage
Google's latest AI model, Gemini 3, demonstrates the power of this data edge. It has emerged as a formidable rival to OpenAI's flagship product, ChatGPT. Industry analysts report that Gemini 3 consistently delivers superior results. It excels in complex reasoning tasks, coding accuracy, and understanding multimodal content like images and text together.
This performance has positioned Google as a new leader in benchmark tests for AI model capability. The shifting user numbers tell a compelling story. Recent data indicates ChatGPT's average weekly visitors fell by about 22% over a six-week period. Traffic dropped from nearly 203 million to 158 million.
During that same timeframe, Gemini's traffic surged dramatically. It recorded a strong 28% month-over-month growth in December 2025. Gemini now commands close to 40% of ChatGPT's web audience size. This is a remarkable achievement for a relatively new service. While ChatGPT still leads in total traffic, the downward trend is a clear warning sign for OpenAI.
The debate started by Matthew Prince goes to the heart of the AI industry's future. It questions whether competition can truly thrive when one player controls such a vast and exclusive reservoir of the internet's information.
