Apple May Use Google Servers for Siri
Apple is reportedly considering using Google's cloud infrastructure to store data for an upgraded, AI-powered version of its Siri assistant. The potential partnership highlights Apple's need to scale its AI capabilities quickly but raises significant questions around data privacy and antitrust scrutiny for the two rivals.
This isn't the first time Apple and Google have formed a high-stakes partnership; Google pays Apple an estimated $20 billion annually to be the default search engine in Safari. That long-standing deal is already at the center of a major U.S. antitrust lawsuit against Google, which alleges the company uses such agreements to illegally protect its search monopoly. The potential Siri deal involves more than just software. Apple is reportedly considering having Google run the AI on its own specialized servers. Google's cloud infrastructure is considered more robust for large-scale AI, partly due to its custom-designed Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) which are optimized for the complex workloads of AI models like Gemini. This move suggests Apple's own cloud infrastructure is not ready to handle a major AI-powered Siri overhaul. Reports indicate Apple's internal AI infrastructure is "beginning to decay," with the company in the process of decommissioning older Nvidia-powered servers. Furthermore, Apple's current "Private Cloud Compute" servers use chips designed for consumer devices, which are not ideal for running large AI models. To address privacy concerns, the discussions reportedly involve Google setting up dedicated servers that would adhere to Apple's strict privacy standards. For years, Apple's software chief Craig Federighi had vetoed using Google's cloud for AI due to privacy worries, but security changes made by Google in 2023 seem to have satisfied Apple's concerns. The relationship between the two tech giants has a complex history, famously described as "frenemies." Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt once sat on Apple's board, and the two collaborated on the original iPhone. However, the launch of Google's Android operating system sparked a period of intense rivalry, with Steve Jobs once vowing to wage "thermonuclear war" on Google. A significantly upgraded, Gemini-powered Siri is expected to be a key feature in upcoming iOS updates. While some new features are anticipated with iOS 26.4, a more profound transformation of Siri into a conversational chatbot similar to ChatGPT is reportedly planned for iOS 27, which would likely debut with the iPhone 18.
