Apple Taps Google's Gemini to Power a Completely Rebuilt Siri

Apple just admitted something it almost never admits: it needs help. The company announced Monday that the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be built on Google’s Gemini technology, a multi-year deal that will transform Siri from a punchline about misheard commands into something that might actually compete with ChatGPT and Google’s own assistant.

“After careful evaluation, we determined that Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we’re excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users,” Apple said in a joint statement with Google. Translation: we tried to build this ourselves, we tested everyone else’s technology too, and Google’s was the best.

According to Bloomberg, Apple will pay Google approximately $1 billion per year for access to a custom Gemini model optimized for Apple’s use cases. For context, Google already pays Apple between $15 and $20 billion annually to remain the default search engine on iPhones. This new deal reverses the cash flow, with Apple becoming a significant customer of Google’s AI infrastructure for the first time.

What This Means for Your iPhone

The revamped Siri is expected to arrive with iOS 26.4, likely in March or April. If the timeline holds, you’ll be able to ask Siri genuinely complex questions, maintain actual conversations, and get responses that don’t make you immediately reach for your keyboard to just Google it yourself.

Comparison of old and new Siri interface showing enhanced conversational capabilities — The new AI-powered Siri will support multi-turn conversations and complex reasoning.

The deal addresses Siri’s core problem: while competitors built large language models capable of reasoning, conversation, and handling ambiguous requests, Siri remained largely a pattern-matching system that excelled at timers and weather but stumbled on anything requiring actual intelligence. This gap became embarrassing as ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s own Gemini demonstrated what AI assistants could actually do.

Apple reportedly spent years trying to build competitive AI internally, but the company’s privacy-first approach, while admirable, created constraints that slowed development. Training large language models requires massive amounts of data, exactly the kind of user information Apple prides itself on not collecting. By partnering with Google, Apple gets access to models trained on data it would never collect itself, while maintaining control over how that technology integrates with its devices.

Why Apple Chose Google Over OpenAI

The partnership is notable for who Apple didn’t choose. OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT and the company that kicked off the current AI frenzy, was reportedly in discussions with Apple. So was Anthropic, whose Claude model has earned praise for safety and accuracy. Apple tested technology from both companies before selecting Google.

Several factors likely tipped the decision. Google’s Gemini already powers much of Samsung’s “Galaxy AI” features, giving it a track record in smartphone integration that competitors lack. Google also has the cloud infrastructure to handle billions of Siri queries daily, having operated at that scale for decades with search and YouTube.

Data center servers representing Google Cloud AI infrastructure — Google's cloud infrastructure will handle billions of Siri queries daily.

Perhaps most importantly, Apple and Google already have the most significant business relationship in tech. Google’s search payments to Apple represent one of the largest line items in Alphabet’s cost structure and one of the most reliable revenue streams in Apple’s services business. Adding an AI component to an existing partnership is far simpler than building a new relationship from scratch with a company like OpenAI, which has its own complicated investor relationships and strategic ambitions.

The regulatory dimension matters too. Google’s search payments to Apple are already under antitrust scrutiny, with a federal judge having ruled that they constitute illegal maintenance of a monopoly. Adding AI to the relationship could draw additional regulatory attention, but both companies apparently concluded that the business benefits outweigh the regulatory risks.

The Competitive Implications

For Alphabet, this deal is a massive validation. Despite the AI hype cycle focusing heavily on OpenAI and startups, Google’s Gemini technology just won perhaps the most demanding technology evaluation in the industry. Apple doesn’t choose partners casually, and the company’s selection of Gemini over competing options sends a signal about the relative capabilities of different AI providers.

The deal also expands Google’s reach dramatically. Apple has more than two billion active devices worldwide, from iPhones to iPads to Macs. If Gemini powers Siri across this installed base, Google’s AI technology will touch more daily lives than any competitor, even as OpenAI and Anthropic capture headlines and enterprise deals.

Infographic showing Apple's two billion active devices globally — Google's Gemini will now reach Apple's two billion active devices.

For OpenAI, the loss stings. The company has been aggressive about partnerships and licensing deals, seeking to establish its technology as the foundation layer for AI across industries. Losing Apple to Google suggests that despite ChatGPT’s cultural dominance, OpenAI’s actual technology may not be as far ahead of competitors as its valuation implies.

Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI and integrated its technology throughout its product line, now faces a situation where its closest partner’s main competitor powers the world’s most popular smartphone. The competitive dynamics of big tech just got more complicated.

What Users Should Watch For

The immediate impact will be subtle. iOS 26.4 is months away, and the full rollout of Gemini-powered features will take time. But Apple has historically been conservative about AI features, preferring to launch polished experiences rather than experimental ones. The company’s willingness to ship a major Siri overhaul suggests confidence that the Gemini integration actually works.

Several capabilities are expected to improve dramatically. Conversational continuity, where you can ask follow-up questions without re-explaining context, is coming. Multi-step task completion, where Siri can handle complex requests that require reasoning across multiple apps, should become more reliable. And the general ability to understand what you actually meant, even when you phrase it imperfectly, should improve substantially.

Privacy remains Apple’s differentiator. The company says that Gemini queries will be processed in ways that don’t expose personal data to Google, though the technical details of how this works haven’t been fully explained. Apple Intelligence features launched last year emphasized on-device processing for sensitive tasks, and the company will likely continue this approach where possible, using cloud-based Gemini only when on-device models aren’t sufficient.

The Bottom Line

Apple’s decision to build Siri’s future on Google’s foundation represents both a strategic retreat and a pragmatic advance. The company acknowledged, implicitly, that it couldn’t build competitive AI fast enough on its own. But by choosing the best available technology and integrating it into Apple’s ecosystem, the company may deliver a better product to users than it could have alone.

The $1 billion annual price tag is significant but not overwhelming for a company with more than $60 billion in annual services revenue. If Gemini-powered Siri keeps users in the Apple ecosystem and enhances the value of iPhone, iPad, and Mac, the investment will pay for itself many times over.

For users who’ve been frustrated with Siri for years, the wait is almost over. iOS 26.4 should arrive in spring with an assistant that finally understands what you’re asking. Whether it lives up to the promise of years of AI hype remains to be seen, but for the first time in a long time, there’s genuine reason for optimism about Siri’s future.

The AI race continues, but the teams have reshuffled. Apple and Google are now partners as well as competitors, Microsoft and OpenAI face a strengthened rival alliance, and users may finally get the intelligent assistant that science fiction has promised for decades. All it took was Apple swallowing its pride and writing a very large check.