Apple has officially confirmed what industry watchers have been circling for months: Google’s Gemini models will play a foundational role in powering future versions of Siri and Apple Intelligence.
The confirmation came via a statement shared with CNBC, where Apple acknowledged that after evaluating multiple options, Google’s AI stack emerged as the most capable platform to support its next generation of intelligence features.
Shortly after, Google reinforced the announcement, describing the partnership as a multi-year collaboration built on Gemini models and Google’s cloud infrastructure.
Why Apple Chose Gemini
Apple’s decision signals a pragmatic shift rather than a philosophical one. For years, the company has insisted on controlling its core technologies end to end. But generative AI is moving fast, and large-scale models require immense training resources, infrastructure, and iteration cycles.
According to Apple, Gemini provides a stronger baseline for Apple Foundation Models, the internal framework that powers Apple Intelligence. This does not mean Siri is becoming a Google product. Instead, Apple is layering its own systems, interfaces, and privacy architecture on top of Gemini’s underlying intelligence.
Google framed it similarly, stating that Gemini will help enable a more personalized Siri while Apple Intelligence continues to run on Apple hardware and its Private Cloud Compute system.
What this Means for Siri
The most immediate impact will be felt in Siri’s long-delayed overhaul. At WWDC 2024, Apple promised a dramatically smarter assistant with features like:
- Personal context awareness
- On-screen understanding
- Deeper in-app actions
- More natural conversational flow
While many Apple Intelligence features have already shipped, this upgraded Siri did not. Apple later admitted the experience was taking longer than expected to reach its quality bar.
Gemini’s involvement suggests Apple needed a more capable reasoning and language model to deliver those promises reliably. Bloomberg previously reported that the new Siri will be powered by a massive 1.2 trillion parameter model, putting it firmly in the top tier of consumer AI systems.
In short, this partnership may be the missing piece that allows Apple to finally ship the Siri it previewed.
Privacy Still Front and Center
One of the biggest concerns around Apple partnering with Google is privacy. Apple was quick to address that head-on.
Both companies emphasized that Apple Intelligence will continue to prioritize on-device processing wherever possible, with Private Cloud Compute handling tasks that require server-side execution. Apple says user data will not be used to train Google models and that requests will remain anonymized and encrypted.
This hybrid approach lets Apple benefit from Gemini’s intelligence without fully outsourcing user trust. It also preserves Apple’s long-standing position as the privacy-focused alternative in the AI race.
The Business Angle
This partnership is not small. As pointed out by 9to5Mac, Bloomberg estimates Apple will pay Google roughly $1 billion per year for access to Gemini models and infrastructure. That figure underscores how strategically important AI has become to Apple’s future.
Rather than racing competitors model-for-model, Apple appears to be betting that its strengths lie in integration, distribution, and user experience. Gemini fills the intelligence gap, while Apple controls how that intelligence shows up across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro.
It is also a reminder that Apple does not need to win the AI arms race on paper. It just needs AI that works, scales, and feels invisible to users.
A Quiet but Significant Shift
Apple working this closely with Google would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Today, it feels almost inevitable.
As generative AI becomes table stakes, the real differentiator is not whose model is biggest, but whose products feel smarter in everyday use. If Gemini helps Siri finally reach that point, most users will not care where the intelligence originated.
They will just notice that Siri stopped feeling behind.
