Apple partners with Google Gemini for Siri

On 12/01/2026, Apple Inc. and Google announced a multi-year partnership to integrate Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence models into a redesigned version of Siri, marking a shift in Apple’s AI strategy toward externally licensed foundation models. The collaboration positions Gemini as a core component of Apple Intelligence features scheduled for release later in 2026. Apple stated that Google’s technology would serve as the “most capable foundation” for its next generation of AI capabilities, including a more personalized Siri and expanded Apple Intelligence tools. The models will run on Apple devices and its Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, maintaining Apple’s privacy standards and limiting access to user data. Reports surrounding the agreement indicated that Apple would license a custom Gemini model with roughly 1.2 trillion parameters, significantly larger than Apple’s existing cloud-based models. The deal was also described as potentially costing Apple around $1 billion per year in licensing fees. The Gemini-powered Siri is expected to support improved personal context awareness, on-screen understanding, and multi-step reasoning for tasks across apps. Apple is expected to deploy the updated assistant in a later 2026 software release tied to upcoming Apple Intelligence updates. The announcement coincided with a market reaction that pushed Google parent company Alphabet to a $4 trillion market capitalization milestone on the same day, reflecting investor optimism about Gemini’s distribution through Apple’s ecosystem of more than two billion devices. The partnership also expands Apple’s AI strategy beyond earlier integrations, placing Gemini at the foundation of future Apple Intelligence features rather than limiting external models to optional queries. The Gemini-powered Siri is expected to launch later in 2026, with early reports pointing to deployment through a mid-cycle iOS update. The update aims to modernize Siri’s architecture and enable more advanced planning, summarization, and contextual assistance across Apple apps and services. Apple is also expected to continue developing its own in-house models alongside the Gemini integration.