Apple, Google near $1B/year deal to power Siri with Gemini AI
Apple, Google near $1B/year deal to power Siri with Gemini AI
Apple and Google nearing a $1B/year deal to power a revamped Siri with Gemini 1.2T AI, aiming for a next-year launch.
Apple and Google are nearing a deal to overhaul Siri by tapping Google's Gemini AI, a 1.2 trillion parameter model, with Apple reportedly paying about $1 billion per year for access. The goal is to roll out a redesigned Siri with iOS 26.4 next year, leveraging Google's capabilities to boost understanding, summarisation and task-planning.
Inside Apple, the initiative is led by Mike Rockwell, the creator of the Vision Pro, and Craig Federighi, the head of software engineering, under the internal project names Glenwood and Linwood. The plan envisions a custom version of Gemini powering Siri while Apple works on its own larger model.
Before settling on Google, Apple evaluated other AI options, including Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. An interim approach would keep Siri relying on external models for now while Apple's in-house models scale up.
The partnership marks a significant shift for Siri, potentially expanding its ability to interpret complex data and context, with the external model handling summarisation and task planning as a bridge to more autonomous Apple AI in the future.
While terms remain private, the deal underscores the high-stakes race to dominate voice assistants and AI-powered features in smartphones, with analysts watching how this collaboration could reshape competition between two tech giants.
Cover image source: Apple nears deal to pay Google $1B annually to power new Siri, report says 🔗
