Apple Nears $1 Billion-a-Year Deal to Use Google’s Gemini AI for Siri
Apple is reportedly set to pay Google $1 billion a year to power Siri with Gemini AI, a rare move that shows Apple is buying time to catch up in the AI race.
Apple is reportedly closing in on a landmark deal that would see it pay Google around $1 billion per year to power the next generation of Siri using Google’s Gemini AI model, according to Bloomberg.
The partnership marks a rare and surprising shift for Apple a company known for keeping its technology in-house. But this time, it’s choosing to borrow Google’s brainpower as a temporary shortcut while it continues developing its own large-scale AI systems under the Apple Intelligence umbrella.
At its core, this is more than just a licensing agreement it’s an admission that Apple is playing catch-up in the AI race. While Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic have dominated the generative AI scene, Apple has taken a slower, more privacy-focused approach. But with Siri lagging behind its peers, Cupertino seems ready to trade exclusivity for capability.
The custom version of Gemini being considered has 1.2 trillion parameters, a staggering leap from the 150 billion parameters powering Apple’s current cloud-based AI model. For context, parameters are like the neurons of an AI brain the more there are, the more complex and capable the system becomes. This means the new Siri could finally deliver on what Apple promised over a decade ago: a voice assistant that actually understands you.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
Apple reportedly tested AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google earlier this year before deciding Gemini offered the best mix of performance and scalability. The revamped Siri is expected to debut in spring 2026, though plans could still evolve before launch.
If the deal goes through, it will signal Apple’s biggest AI collaboration yet and perhaps its most pragmatic. By outsourcing part of Siri’s intelligence, Apple can roll out a more capable assistant much faster while maintaining control over the design, privacy, and user experience.
For Google, it’s a major win not just financially, but strategically. Getting its Gemini model embedded into hundreds of millions of iPhones would instantly expand its AI footprint far beyond its own Pixel and Android ecosystem. It would also further entrench Google as a key infrastructure provider for the next generation of consumer AI tools.
But there’s also a risk. Apple’s long-term plan is still to develop its own competitive AI foundation model. This $1 billion deal, then, might just be a bridge not a partnership.
The takeaway
Apple teaming up with Google for Siri’s next big leap isn’t just about catching up it’s about buying time. While Apple fine-tunes its own intelligence systems, Google’s Gemini could be the temporary engine that keeps Siri relevant in the AI-powered future. And if it works, it might just redefine how rivals can coexist not as competitors, but as collaborators in a trillion-dollar AI ecosystem.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
