Apple selects Google’s Gemini to power Siri
Apple has selected Google’s Gemini model as part of a multiyear partnership to power its revamped, AI-powered Siri, set to launch later this year.
Apple first announced a revamped AI Siri back in June 2024 but failed to execute on many of its promises of personalized features and deep system integration. The newest iteration of Siri was expected this spring. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple plans to pay Google $1 billion a year to use its AI model to power Siri.
“This is what the Street has been waiting for with the elephant in the room for Cupertino revolving around its invisible AI strategy,” said analyst Dan Ives, calling the move a “major validation moment for Google as a premier foundation model and for Apple as a stepping stone to accelerate its AI strategy into 2026 and beyond.”
With this news, the iPhone maker has ticked one of the four boxes that Ives said would be integral to the stock’s success in 2026.
Google gets a new business line and Apple gets to be unashamed of its phones’ assistants. Everyone’s happy, right? Wrong!
“This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that the also have Android and Chrome,” wrote Elon Musk, who owns an AI company with an AI model that was not picked to be in the iPhone.
Musk has previously sued Apple, accusing the company of unfairly favoring OpenAI’s ChatGPT — with which Apple also has a more limited AI partnership — in its App Store.
Long considered the AI front-runner, OpenAI, which was also in the running to power Siri, has been facing increased competition from Google.
The Takeaway
Given that Apple is very assiduous about its reputation, the company’s lack of interest in xAI’s offerings can best be understood in the context of Grok’s increasingly serious image problem. Google, which has been riding high on the stellar reception of its latest Gemini model, briefly notched a $4 trillion market cap on the news. Apple hit that notable milestone in 2025 but has since fallen and is currently worth $3.8 trillion.