Apple has finally made a decisive move on artificial intelligence, and it is turning to a familiar rival-turned-partner to do the heavy lifting. The iPhone maker has confirmed that Google’s Gemini technology will form the backbone of upcoming AI features across Siri and Apple Intelligence, making it one of the most important partnerships in Apple’s recent software history. The collaboration is expected to play a central role in the long-awaited Siri overhaul that Apple plans to roll out later this year.
In a joint announcement, Apple said it chose Google after evaluating multiple options internally. According to the company, Gemini offers the most capable base for Apple Foundation Models, while still allowing Apple to maintain control over how the technology is deployed. Importantly, Apple stressed that the AI models will continue to run either directly on users’ devices or on its Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, supporting its long-standing stance on user privacy and on-device processing.
While neither company has shared financial details of the agreement, reports over the past year have hinted at the scale of the deal. Bloomberg had earlier said Apple was in discussions with Google to use a customised version of Gemini for Siri, and later claimed Apple could be paying around $1 billion annually for access to Google’s AI models. Apple has declined to comment on these figures, and Google has pointed back to the official statement.
This tie-up is significant not just for Apple, but also for Google. It shows growing confidence in Google’s AI roadmap at a time when competition from OpenAI has been intense. After a few uneven years, Google’s AI push appears to be gaining momentum. In 2025, the company reportedly recorded its strongest performance in over a decade and recently overtook Apple in market capitalisation for the first time since 2019, showing how investor sentiment has moved in its favour.
Apple and Google already share a deep, if sometimes controversial, business relationship. Google pays Apple billions of dollars each year to remain the default search engine on iPhones and other Apple devices. That arrangement came under scrutiny after a US court ruled that Google held an illegal monopoly in online search. However, a key ruling in September avoided a worst-case outcome that could have forced Google to spin off Chrome, and also allowed it to continue entering into partnerships like the one announced with Apple.
Following news of the Gemini deal, Google’s shares initially jumped and briefly pushed the company’s market value past the $4 trillion mark before easing back. The reaction shows how closely investors are watching Google’s progress in AI, especially as it looks to position Gemini as a serious alternative to OpenAI’s models.
For Apple, the partnership addresses a growing gap that has been hard to ignore. While rivals such as Microsoft, Amazon and Meta have poured billions into AI tools, cloud infrastructure and consumer-facing features since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, Apple has taken a more cautious approach. That caution has also drawn criticism, particularly around Siri, which many users feel has lagged behind newer AI assistants.
Last year, Apple even had to delay its promised Siri AI upgrade until 2026, despite already promoting the feature in advertisements. At the time, the company admitted that development was taking longer than expected and said new capabilities would roll out gradually over the following year. The decision added pressure on Apple to show tangible progress, and the Gemini partnership appears to be a direct response to that challenge.
At present, Apple already works with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and Apple Intelligence for more complex queries that rely on broader world knowledge. Apple has said this arrangement remains unchanged for now, though it has not clarified how Gemini and ChatGPT will coexist in the longer term. OpenAI has not commented publicly on the development.
Meanwhile, Google continues to push ahead with Gemini. The company introduced its upgraded Gemini 3 model late last year and has been aggressively expanding its enterprise AI business. In October, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the cloud division had signed more billion-dollar deals through the third quarter of 2025 than in the previous two years combined.
For users, the real test will be how all of this translates into everyday experience. If Apple can successfully blend Gemini’s capabilities with its own design philosophy and privacy-first approach, Siri could finally see the kind of upgrade users have been waiting for.
