Will Google’s $1 Billion Alliance with Apple Finally Make Siri Smarter?

In a move that could redefine Big Tech alliances, Apple is reportedly finalising a deal to pay Google about $1 billion annually for access to a custom version of Google’s Gemini AI model to power the next-generation Siri, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The partnership marks a surprising collaboration between two fierce rivals, reflecting Apple’s pragmatic strategy to accelerate its artificial intelligence roadmap. For over a decade, Siri has remained central to Apple’s ecosystem, yet it has consistently lagged behind Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and ChatGPT-style AI systems. This billion-dollar alliance could finally mark Siri’s evolution from a limited voice helper to a truly intelligent digital companion.

Addressing Siri’s Long-Standing Weaknesses

As Bloomberg reports, Apple’s in-house AI efforts have struggled to match the scale and sophistication of competitors. Siri’s current cloud-based models, estimated at 150 billion parameters, fall far short of Google’s advanced 1.2 trillion-parameter Gemini model.

The integration aims to bring major improvements—enabling Siri to perform advanced tasks such as multi-step planning, summarising long content, and understanding context-rich conversations. For users, that could mean a Siri capable of creating travel itineraries, summarising emails, or coordinating tasks across Apple devices seamlessly.

Apple’s plan to deploy Gemini technology underscores a massive eightfold leap in model complexity and performance, potentially turning Siri into one of the most capable AI-powered voice assistants on the market.

Privacy Intact

Despite this major shift, Apple intends to preserve its privacy-first positioning. Bloomberg notes that the licensed Gemini model will operate entirely within Apple’s Private Cloud Compute (PCC) environment — ensuring that user queries and data are processed on Apple’s servers, isolated from Google’s training systems.

This setup allows Apple to maintain tight control over user data while leveraging Google’s AI power behind the scenes. To consumers, Siri’s improvements will still appear as Apple’s own innovation, seamlessly embedded into iOS and macOS experiences.

A Temporary Yet Strategic Alliance

According to Bloomberg, Apple doesn’t view this as a permanent handover of its AI future. The deal is described as a temporary bridge, designed to give Siri a performance boost while Apple’s internal AI division scales up its homegrown models.

Apple reportedly evaluated systems from OpenAI and Anthropic before selecting Google’s Gemini for its superior performance and scalability. The company continues to invest heavily in its own large-scale AI research, aiming for eventual independence in core AI infrastructure.

The $1 billion annual deal represents both a technological and strategic milestone. For Apple, it’s an acknowledgement that catching up in AI requires collaboration, not isolation. The company has faced mounting investor pressure over its slower pace in AI compared to peers like Microsoft, Google, and Meta.

For Google, the partnership is a commercial and competitive win—not only securing a new revenue stream but also reinforcing Gemini’s dominance as a foundational AI model. The agreement builds upon the two companies’ existing relationship, where Google already pays Apple an estimated $20 billion annually to remain the default search engine on Safari.

This new arrangement adds another layer to that interdependence—placing Google’s technology at the core of Apple’s intelligence layer, at least for now.

Collaboration Over Competition

The Apple-Google AI pact reflects a broader industry trend where even long-time rivals are embracing “co-opetition”—cooperation in the face of shared technological challenges. As AI development becomes exponentially expensive and data-intensive, such alliances are becoming less about rivalry and more about strategic necessity.

If successful, the collaboration could redefine what AI-powered voice assistants can do—and reshape how users interact with Apple devices. Siri, once seen as a laggard, could finally reclaim its place as a leading interface for the next era of ambient computing.

The success of this partnership will hinge on execution: how effectively Apple blends Google’s AI horsepower with its own design, privacy, and ecosystem ethos. As Bloomberg points out, the overhauled Siri is expected to debut in spring 2026, though plans could evolve before launch.

If it delivers as promised, the $1 billion alliance could mark a turning point for both Apple and Siri—a voice once mocked for its limitations, now poised to lead Apple’s next leap in AI