For years, Apple and Google have would, wouldn’t What does that have to do with which AI companies Apple chooses to support its Siri virtual assistant and provide new AI-powered personalization and agent capabilities? Apple has been active in this space for the past year or two. reportedly We are considering working with OpenAI or Anthropic to support the new Siri. But the multi-year partnership announcement bachelorIn a style finale, Apple announced that it will live happily ever after with Google. The company’s Gemini AI model is more personalized Apple’s version of Siri will arrive sometime in 2026.
“After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models, and we are excited about the innovative new experiences it will bring to Apple users,” Google and Apple wrote in a written statement. joint statement.
The deal will allow Apple to use both Gemini AI and Google’s cloud technology to power future Frontier models and Apple Intelligence capabilities, the companies said, adding that Apple Intelligence “will continue to run on Apple devices and private cloud computing while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.”
The latter point was highlighted by Morningstar analysts, who wrote in a note Monday that the agreement helps “ensure that Apple’s security and privacy reputation remains intact as it uses Gemini instances on its own servers in its own data centers through its private cloud computing products for AI processing.” The analysts added that “users will also be able to opt-in to share prompts directly with Gemini.”
But what does this deal actually mean for both companies? It’s still not clear exactly how the technology exchange will work. Will Google provide Apple with its AI model, white label it through Apple’s own AI team, and build on it? Or will Google work with Apple to ensure the success of the new Siri final product? Let’s take a look. But the fact that the companies’ joint statement emphasized all that “private cloud computing” means that at least Apple’s new deal with Google is similar to Siri’s deal with OpenAI from a privacy perspective. William Kerwin, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said Apple will likely ask users for permission before sharing anything directly with Google. The Verge.
On the surface, Apple and Google may seem like rival technology giants, but the two companies have had a close and complex relationship for more than a decade. Notably, the two are linked by a mysterious long-term deal involving Apple products that feature Google as the default search engine on their devices. almost half Of Google’s search traffic. Bruce Sewell, former general counsel at Apple, said of the concept of “cooperation.” new york times, I’m saying“You have intense competition, but you also have the necessary cooperation.”
Google paid Apple Up to $20 billion annually Remains the default search engine on Apple devices through Apple’s Safari browser. After a protracted antitrust case, a federal district court judge dominated Last fall, Google indicated it believed it could continue making these payments. The relief ruling paved the way for Monday’s announcement. And the resulting “cooperative competition” means that both companies stand to gain significant profits. rumored Apple’s $1 billion annual payment to Google is in many ways insignificant in an industry as valuable as this one.
The relatively low annual payments help demonstrate how mutually beneficial this partnership is. It’s a win-win as the two FAANG companies work together to strengthen their ramparts against high-flying AI startups that could upend their long-standing dominance.
“From Apple’s perspective, this is certainly a win given their past struggles with their AI strategy,” Morningstar’s Kerwin said. “Simply put, they over-promised in the summer of 2024 and are still under-delivering on that promise.” He added that the multi-year deal means Apple can stop investing in building its reputation as a frontier model company and instead focus on another company’s AI-powered user experience, and could ultimately allow AI agent providers to potentially become major players in the battle for consumer attention. To do so, he added, we need an AI agent that is useful enough to, in theory, tap into the consumer market in new and unprecedented ways.
On Google’s side, Kerwin said, “This win is similar to what we get for search in that it becomes the de facto AI model of choice in the minds of consumers…This will allow us to capture even more users from the iPhone user base, while also solidifying our brand image as the go-to AI model to support all of these features.”
Still, experts say the deal could spark the same kind of scrutiny that Google just dealt with.
“Given Google’s antitrust case, I think there was a possibility that Google could have been prevented from making such a transaction. [it’s] said James Grimmelman, professor of digital and information law at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School. The Verge. Part of the government’s case in the search court was aimed precisely at stopping Google from making similar sweetheart AI deals, but on that front it got Google’s way.
“That’s not to say this deal doesn’t raise antitrust concerns. In a few years, Google could face new antitrust litigation for being an AI provider to Apple, just as Google faces antitrust scrutiny for being a search provider,” Grimmelman said. “If you think back to when Google started appearing as the default search provider and these listing deals started, it was a less concentrated search market. So over time, the market could evolve in a way that makes deals like this more problematic.”
Blake Reed, an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Law, said the details of the deal between Apple and Google are not yet fully clear, but they are important from both antitrust and AI business perspectives.
“The main concern about Apple and Google’s search deal was that by sending so many queries to Google, Apple would make it difficult for other companies to build competitive search engines and provide a moat for Google,” Reid said. “But does Apple intend to transmit data in a similar way here? Apple’s initial statements indicate that they intend to use Google’s technology as a more white-labeled technology stack, customize it and deploy it as an Apple service. If Google was just getting money from Apple, the antitrust issues would be less obvious.”
The announcement also comes after Apple’s highly publicized efforts to upgrade Siri’s AI capabilities to provide more personalization and agent-assisted task completion. At the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference held last June, Siri was mentioned as follows: noticeably absentaside from the announcement that a previously promised update is behind schedule.
“We continue to work on delivering features that make Siri even more personal,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said at an event in June. “This work took us more time to arrive at high-quality bars, and we look forward to sharing more about this work next year.”
Clearly, the time is now. It’s been a semi-embarrassing year for Apple’s AI strategy: A summary of the message from Apple Intelligence significantly off the marka TV ad aired last year for new Siri features (though those features haven’t arrived yet); reportedly Mike Rockwell, who previously led Apple’s Vision Pro, will replace longtime AI chief John Gianandrea. So the company is trying to turn things around with a high-profile new Google partnership and a suite of services. Future AI integration Along with other startups.
“Apple is concerned that the rise of AI threatens to bypass it altogether,” Cornell University’s Grimmelman said. “Apple has a unique relationship with its users through its devices and the integration of hardware and software, and it’s concerned that AI could circumvent that relationship in the same way that the rise of the web browser deeply threatened Microsoft’s relationship with its users.” “Apple first tried to develop its own AI models and then chose to partner with Google here. This is an attempt to maintain that relationship and stay relevant.”