Apple and Google have officially announced a multi-year partnership that will bring Google’s Gemini AI models to the core of Siri, fundamentally reshaping how Apple builds and delivers artificial intelligence across its devices. The move marks one of the most significant strategic pivots in Apple’s recent history, signaling that the company is stepping back from developing its own cutting-edge AI independently and turning instead to its biggest mobile rival to fill the gap.
What the Partnership Involves
Under the new agreement, the next generation of Apple Foundation Models — the technology powering Apple Intelligence — will be built on Google’s Gemini models and cloud infrastructure. In a joint statement, Apple confirmed that it evaluated its options and determined Google’s AI technology to be the most capable foundation available for its upcoming features, including a more personalized version of Siri coming later this year.
Apple is expected to pay approximately $1 billion annually for the arrangement. Rather than a traditional licensing deal, it is reportedly structured as a cloud-computing contract. Apple will fine-tune the Gemini models to suit its needs and retain full control over the user experience across every application that calls on them. At the same time, Apple has committed to keeping Apple Intelligence running within its own Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, preserving its existing privacy standards.
Two Siri Upgrades Are Coming
The partnership is set to produce two separate Siri upgrades, each more ambitious than the last.
The first is tied to iOS 26.4. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that Apple plans to unveil this updated Siri in the second half of February 2026, with the software available in beta that same month and a public release expected in March or early April. The update will work on iPhone 15 Pro models and newer.
This version will finally deliver something Apple first teased at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024 — a Siri that can read on-screen content and pull from a user’s personal information to carry out tasks. Back then, Apple showed a demonstration in which Siri checked a family member’s flight details and pulled up a lunch reservation from Messages and Mail. The revamped assistant will also be able to manage multi-step actions in one fluid sequence, such as locating a photo, editing it, and sending it to a contact.
A far more powerful Siri is reportedly in the works for iOS 27, with details expected to emerge at WWDC in June 2026. This version is being built as a full-blown conversational chatbot — a direct competitor to tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini — capable of sustained back-and-forth dialogue, web searches, media generation, and deep integration with apps including Mail, Photos, and Music. It is reportedly expected to be competitive with Gemini 3, Google’s next-generation model, and may run directly on Google’s cloud servers.
Why Apple Turned to Google — and Not OpenAI
Before settling on Google, Apple was evaluating AI models from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. While Apple already integrates ChatGPT into its operating system — and Siri can still hand off certain queries to OpenAI models — OpenAI did not end up as the backbone of Apple’s AI strategy. According to reports, OpenAI made a deliberate choice not to serve as Apple’s core AI provider, opting instead to focus on its own initiative to build a new category of post-smartphone mobile devices, a project led by Jony Ive, the designer behind the original iPhone.
Apple’s internal AI struggles were well documented before this deal took shape. A major Siri update was delayed in mid-2024 after it failed to meet the company’s internal quality standards — a promise Apple had originally made to users at WWDC 2024. Apple’s AI chief John Giannandrea also recently departed, reinforcing that the company was in search of a new direction.
The revamped Siri will technically still carry Apple’s branding. It will run on a new Apple Intelligence model that has Gemini’s technology integrated at its foundation, rather than being a direct plug-in of the Gemini app itself.
Google’s Expanding Role in Apple’s Ecosystem
This new AI deal deepens a financial relationship between the two companies that already runs extraordinarily deep. Google currently pays Apple an estimated $20 billion each year to remain the default search engine on iPhones and other Apple devices. Apple’s annual payment for AI model access — reportedly around $1 billion — is far smaller by comparison, a gap that observers say reflects how effectively Apple leveraged competition among AI providers to negotiate from a position of strength.
For Google, the partnership extends its reach further into one of the world’s most popular and profitable consumer devices. For Apple, it provides a faster, more cost-effective path to delivering competitive AI to iPhone users, without bearing the enormous expense of building frontier AI models from the ground up.
