Cupertino, CA — In a major development shaking up the tech industry, Apple Inc. has confirmed a landmark partnership with Google to use its advanced Gemini artificial intelligence models to power the next generation of Siri and other AI-driven features across Apple devices.
The agreement, described as a multi-year collaboration, signals a strategic shift for Apple — long known for building its core technologies in-house — toward leveraging external AI expertise to accelerate innovation and catch up with rivals in conversational AI.
Siri Gets a ‘Brain Upgrade’ with Google Gemini
The upcoming version of Siri — expected to debut with iOS 26.4 in Spring 2026 — will rely on a customized variant of Google’s Gemini model to deliver smarter, more context-aware responses, deeper integration with apps, and more natural conversational capabilities.
According to Apple and Google, the collaboration is designed to combine Google’s industry-leading AI model with Apple’s privacy-centric approach, ensuring that advanced AI processing remains wrapped in Apple’s platform and infrastructure.
Apple stated in a joint announcement that it chose Google’s AI technology after an extensive evaluation, citing Gemini’s capabilities as the most effective foundation for future Apple Intelligence features.
Strategic & Financial Dimensions
Industry insiders have reported that Apple could be paying around $1 billion per year for access to a 1.2 trillion-parameter version of Google’s AI — a stark acknowledgment of the resources required to build such sophisticated models internally.
This deal not only accelerates Apple’s AI roadmap but also underscores the challenges it has faced in developing competitive AI models on its own. The partnership was hinted at in earlier discussions involving other AI providers, including OpenAI and Anthropic, before Apple finalized terms with Google.
What Users Can Expect
The Google-powered Siri is expected to vastly improve on the current voice assistant’s capabilities, particularly in:
- Contextual understanding and follow-up questions
- Complex task planning and execution
- Summarizing content and multi-step reasoning
- More natural, conversational interactions
While the underlying AI will be powered by Google’s models, Apple says privacy measures remain a core focus. Siri’s AI processing will utilize Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure — designed to protect user data and limit exposure to external systems.
ndustry & Competitive Impact
The partnership has drawn reactions across the tech world. Some analysts view it as a pragmatic acknowledgment of Google’s lead in generative AI, while others see it as a rare collaboration between two of the industry’s fiercest competitors.
Notably, Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk criticised the deal, describing the Apple-Google partnership as an “unreasonable concentration of power” in the hands of two dominant tech giants.
For Apple users, the changes could mark one of the most significant upgrades to Siri since its launch, finally bringing it closer to the capabilities of leading AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google Assistant — all while preserving the look and feel of Apple’s ecosystem.
Looking Ahead
Beyond Siri, Apple’s adoption of Google’s AI infrastructure may extend to other facets of Apple Intelligence, its broader suite of AI features introduced in recent operating systems. The companies are expected to showcase more of their AI roadmap at WWDC 2026 later this year.
As the AI landscape evolves rapidly, this collaboration could reshape competitive dynamics in consumer AI, raising both opportunities and regulatory questions about how tech giants collaborate — and compete — at the cutting edge.