Apple's Gemini bill

Apple is reportedly paying Google about $1 billion a year to help run Siri, a sharp reversal for a company that spent years saying its best artificial intelligence would be built around Apple’s own hardware and privacy systems. (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg reported on November 5, 2025, that Apple was finalizing a deal to license a custom Google Gemini model for Siri’s summarizer and planner functions, with annual payments of roughly $1 billion. CNBC reported on January 12, 2026, that Apple and Google then announced a multiyear partnership for an AI-powered Siri and future Apple foundation models. (bloomberg.com) (cnbc.com) Apple said Google’s technology would provide the “most capable foundation” for Apple Foundation Models, while both companies said Apple Intelligence would still run on Apple devices and on Private Cloud Compute, Apple’s in-house server system for more demanding requests. Apple did not disclose financial terms in the joint statement. (blog.google) (security.apple.com) That arrangement follows Apple’s June 10, 2024 launch of Apple Intelligence, which it pitched as a system that combines on-device models with cloud processing while protecting personal data. The same rollout also added ChatGPT access to Siri for some requests, showing Apple was already willing to route parts of its assistant to outside models when its own software fell short. (apple.com) (cnbc.com) Apple’s Siri roadmap then slipped. On March 7, 2025, Apple said the “more personalized” Siri features it had previewed would take longer than expected and would roll out “in the coming year,” delaying a centerpiece of its Apple Intelligence pitch. (9to5mac.com) The reported Gemini bill also lands next to Apple’s much larger search relationship with Google. CNBC said Google already pays Apple billions each year to remain the default search engine on iPhones, and Yahoo Finance reported after a September 2025 antitrust ruling that the search deal was still worth an estimated $20 billion a year to Apple. (cnbc.com) (finance.yahoo.com) In that context, the new flow of money runs the other direction: Apple would be the buyer, not the toll collector. Bloomberg reported that Apple tested models from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic before settling on Gemini as an interim answer while Apple works on a larger in-house cloud model. (bloomberg.com) CNET, citing Bloomberg, reported that Anthropic’s option would have cost Apple about $1.5 billion a year, compared with roughly $1 billion for Google. CNET also reported that Apple did not plan to foreground Google’s role in its marketing, even as Gemini handled heavier server-side tasks. (cnet.com) The simplest way to read the deal is that Apple kept its privacy architecture and user interface, but outsourced more of the assistant’s reasoning engine than it once expected to. If Siri improves this year, users may notice the answers before they notice whose model is underneath. (blog.google) (security.apple.com)