At the 2025 International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals in Baku, Azerbaijan, OpenAI—backed by tech giant Microsoft (MSFT)—achieved a major milestone. Indeed, its AI system, which combines GPT-5 and a new experimental reasoning model, solved all 12 algorithm problems in under five hours. GPT-5 handled the first 11, and the final, hardest problem was solved by the experimental model. This matched the top human team’s score and is the first time an AI reached a first-place human-equivalent ranking at the ICPC.
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Google’s (GOOGL) Gemini 2.5 Deep Think also competed and solved 10 out of 12 problems correctly. ICPC’s Global Executive Director Bill Poucher said that Gemini’s strong results show how AI is becoming part of top-level academic competitions. Interestingly, the ICPC is often called the “Olympics of programming” and brings together top student teams from around the world each year. In this year’s rankings, St. Petersburg State University placed first, followed by teams from the University of Tokyo, Beijing Jiaotong, Tsinghua, and Peking University. Harvard came in sixth.
Unsurprisingly, OpenAI took the chance to share on X that GPT-5’s performance shows how much progress its AI has made in just one year by becoming not only smarter, but faster and more affordable. It is also worth noting that many of OpenAI’s own researchers were once ICPC competitors themselves, which challenges students to solve real-world problems under time pressure and helps connect universities with the tech industry.
Is Google Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on GOOGL stock based on 29 Buys and nine Holds assigned in the past three months. Furthermore, the average GOOGL price target of $236.85 per share implies 5.1% downside risk.
