According to industry insiders, Apple The company plans to pay approximately $1 billion annually to acquire an artificial intelligence system developed by Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., which boasts 1.2 trillion parameters. (AI) models will be used to help fully upgrade its long-promised Siri voice assistant.
Industry insiders say that after a period of extensive evaluation, the two companies are currently finalizing an agreement that will allow Apple to use Google's technology. The new version of Siri is expected to launch next spring, with Google's Gemini model handling core functions such as information aggregation and task execution.
Shares of both companies surged to intraday highs after the news broke on Wednesday. Apple shares rose less than 1% to $271.70, while Alphabet shares rose 3.2% to $286.42.
It is understood that Apple had considered using other third-party models to perform this task, but after testing Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Anthropic's Claude, it decided earlier this year to partner with Google. According to Apple itself, the company only intended to use Google's technology as a transitional solution until its own model became sufficiently capable.
Compared to the 150 billion parameter model used in Apple's current intelligent cloud version, Google's customized Gemini system represents a major technological leap, dwarfing Apple's self-developed model. The 1.2 trillion parameter scale of the Gemini model will significantly expand the system's processing power and its ability to understand complex data and context.
While the partnership is significant, it's unlikely to be publicly promoted. Instead, Apple will treat Google as a behind-the-scenes technology provider. This would differentiate the agreement from the two companies' Safari browser agreement, which uses Google as the default search engine.
It is also worth noting that this agreement differs from previous agreements regarding using Gemini as a chatbot. Negotiations to integrate directly into Siri. These discussions came close to fruition in 2024 and earlier this year, but ultimately failed to materialize into a feature. This collaboration also will not integrate Google's AI search into Apple's operating system.
During Apple's recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook stated that Siri may eventually offer additional chatbots besides the current ChatGPT option.
In conclusion, Apple still doesn't want Gemini as a long-term solution. Sources indicate that despite the company losing AI talent, including the head of its modeling team, management intends to continue developing new AI technologies and hopes to eventually replace Gemini with an internal solution.
To this end, the company's modeling team is developing a cloud-based model with one trillion parameters, hoping to be ready for consumer applications as early as next year. Apple executives believe it can achieve a similar level of quality to the customized Gemini. However, analysts point out that Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro currently leads most large language model leaderboards, and catching up will not be easy.
Of course, Apple isn't the only company using Gemini to power its AI capabilities: Snap Inc. and several other large companies are developing on Google's Vertex AI platform. But for Apple, this move signifies an admission that it has fallen behind in the field of artificial intelligence and is now willing to rely on external technology to catch up.
(Article source: CLS)
