San Francisco residents witnessed an unusual sight in the skies on Tuesday morning when a massive blimp, bankrolled by a Google billionaire, appeared above the city just as Google’s new AI model Gemini 3 made headlines for outperforming nearly every major benchmark.
The airship, known as Pathfinder 1, was spotted circling Bay Area skies.(X/@samhogan)
The airship, known as Pathfinder 1, was spotted circling Bay Area skies, according to a report by The San Francisco Standard. Taking to X, user Sam Hogan shared an image of the airship gliding over the skyline. “The founder of Google flying his $150M blimp over San Francisco on the day Gemini 3 beats nearly every model benchmark is the exact type of big baller energy this city loves,” he wrote.
Hogan’s post quickly caught the attention of social media users, with many calling the scene a “wild sight”.
“It’s a wild sight! Sergey knows how to make a statement, doesn’t he? With Gemini 3 pushing boundaries, it’s a reminder of innovation’s power in the tech capital. Nothing like a little blimp action to keep the excitement alive in San Francisco!” one user wrote.
“Peak flex is building empires and still showing up,” commented another.
“Seen this blimp ever since I was a kid. This solves a long term mystery…it was Sergey all along,” wrote a third user.
According to The San Francisco Standard, the airship took off from Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View shortly before 9:30 am, which the company called a test flight. It was reportedly aloft until the afternoon over the southeastern end of the bay.
(Also Read: Meet Anushka Sharma: Bengaluru techie quits Google less than a month after joining)
About Pathfinder 1
The airship, which looks like a bulky balloon, is the brainchild of Alan Weston, who founded Lighter Than Air (LTA) Research in 2013 with funding from Google co-founder Sergey Brin. LTA says the airship is “the first step toward realising our vision of leading the future of aviation with innovative lighter-than-air technology”. The company aims to “launch the next generation of zero-emission airships”.
(Also Read: Massive white airship spotted flying over San Francisco in viral video: All we know about it)
Google launches Gemini 3
Notably, the moment came hours after Google launched the latest version of its AI model Gemini 3. Google CEO Sundar Pichai described it as “our most intelligent model,” in a company blog post. He also said that the Gemini 3 launch marked the first time that Google had incorporated its new model into its search engine from day one.
Gemini 3 can understand text and images, create visuals and interact more naturally. It also offers improved reasoning capabilities.