Apple May Pay Google $1 Billion to Power Siri with Gemini AI

In order to remain the default search engine on Safari, Google pays Apple billions of dollars a year for that “privilege.” But now, it looks like Apple is about to return the favor. According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple could soon pay Google $1 billion in order to use a custom Gemini model for Siri.

Apple could pay Google for the upgraded Siri

The report claims that Apple and Google are nearing a deal for the upgraded version of Siri. This deal would see Apple pay the search giant $1 billion a year. That’s a lot of money, but when you think about how much Google pays Apple, well, it’s quite a paltry sum.

For those unfamiliar, Apple is expected to launch an upgraded version of Siri in 2026. However, instead of building it themselves, a recent report claims that Apple will get a helping hand from Google. The report claims that the underlying LLM powering the upgraded Siri is actually a customized version of Gemini.

Seeing as how Gemini has already been so well-established, it makes sense. The earlier report also claimed that Apple had tested models from both Anthropic and Google, but ultimately went with Google. This is reportedly due to costs, plus Apple and Google already have a working relationship which makes things easier.

A temporary solution

That being said, don’t think for a second that this deal means Apple is giving up its own AI dreams. Apple is said to view this arrangement with Google as a temporary solution. Given how Apple loves to do everything in-house, this makes sense.

As it stands, Apple’s current AI model which is used to power Apple Intelligence uses 150 billion parameters. The customized version of Gemini, on the other hand, is said to feature 1.2 trillion parameters. This means that it is roughly eight times more complex than whatever Apple has at the moment.

However, Apple is said to be working on a 1 trillion parameter model of its own. We’re not sure when the company will debut it, but currently it seems like Apple is bleeding a lot of AI talent to other firms like Meta.