By Sean Michael Cummings

Sergey Brin didn't plan to return to work...

After stepping down from his executive role at Alphabet (GOOGL) in 2019, Brin faded into billionaire obscurity. He busied himself with charity, venture capitalism, and windsurfing...

But in late 2022, everything changed...

That fall, OpenAI launched ChatGPT. Overnight, Silicon Valley's favorite search engine looked like a dinosaur. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai even called it a "code red" emergency...

And just like that, Brin came back to head up Alphabet's AI overhaul.

Brin recently reported that he's at the company "pretty much every day now," leading the charge to perfect new AI products.

And for the first time in years, Alphabet is quietly winning the AI arms race. But Wall Street isn't awake to that reality just yet.