On January 12, 2026, Apple made waves in the technology world by confirming a multi-year partnership with Google, aiming to power its next generation of artificial intelligence features—including a long-awaited Siri overhaul—using Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology. The move, which had been the subject of months of speculation and reporting, represents a significant pivot for Apple as it seeks to catch up in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Apple’s official statement, shared with CNBC and echoed across major outlets like MacRumors and 9to5Mac, left no room for doubt: “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.” Google, for its part, confirmed the arrangement, noting that the partnership would provide the backbone for Apple’s future intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri expected to launch later in 2026.
For Apple, whose reputation has long hinged on privacy and in-house technological prowess, the decision to lean on Google’s AI might seem surprising. Yet, as reported by AppleInsider, the company’s own efforts with Apple Foundation Models had lagged behind industry leaders, prompting the search for an outside partner. After evaluating multiple technology providers, Apple landed on Google’s Gemini models, which are widely regarded as among the most advanced large language models available today.
The deal is not just a technical collaboration—it’s also a major financial commitment. According to Bloomberg, Apple is expected to pay Google approximately $1 billion per year for access to the Gemini models and supporting cloud infrastructure. While neither company has publicly commented on the precise terms, the figure underscores the scale and seriousness of Apple’s ambitions in the AI space.
So, what does this mean for everyday users? Quite a bit, it turns out. At WWDC 2024, Apple first unveiled its Apple Intelligence ecosystem, promising a host of features like Notification Summaries, advanced Writing Tools, Image Playground, Genmoji, and, most notably, a revamped Siri. The new Siri was billed as smarter and more helpful, with capabilities such as personal context awareness, in-app actions, and on-screen intelligence—features that would allow users to ask about their mother’s flight or lunch reservations by pulling information from their Mail and Messages apps.
However, as Apple later admitted in a statement to John Gruber in May 2025, delivering those improvements was taking longer than expected. The launch of the overhauled Siri was delayed, with a revised release now anticipated for later in 2026, likely alongside iOS 26.4 in the spring. The partnership with Google is expected to provide the technological muscle needed to finally bring these features to life.
But privacy, always a cornerstone of Apple’s brand, remains front and center. As AppleInsider and 9to5Mac both emphasized, the deal does not mean Google will have access to Apple users’ data. Instead, Apple will use customized versions of the Gemini models, running them on its own devices and within its Private Cloud Compute infrastructure. User data will remain on Apple’s servers, processed securely and discarded after use. “Even if it’s just Gemini in a Private Cloud Compute server, that data would be securely passed and discarded after use,” noted AppleInsider. This approach allows Apple to leverage the power of Gemini while maintaining its industry-leading privacy standards.
The technical underpinnings of the new Siri are impressive. As reported by Bloomberg, Apple will utilize a 1.2 trillion parameter AI model—far surpassing the scale of Apple’s previous in-house models. This leap in model size, enabled by Google’s technology, is expected to make Siri far more capable, context-aware, and responsive than ever before.
Apple’s embrace of Google’s AI is also likely to have ripple effects across its broader ecosystem. The company has plans to integrate these new intelligence features not just in Siri, but across its suite of products and services. This could mean smarter notifications, more intuitive writing assistance, and richer, AI-driven experiences throughout iOS, macOS, and beyond. The partnership also opens the door to deeper integration with App Intents in iOS, allowing Siri to perform more complex tasks and giving external AI systems limited access to those capabilities through Apple’s Model Context Protocol.
Interestingly, the deal comes at a time of shifting dynamics in the tech industry. Google, whose AI strategy has sometimes played second fiddle to OpenAI and Microsoft in recent years, has seen a resurgence. The announcement of the Apple partnership helped push Alphabet past a $4 trillion market capitalization milestone, as reported by CNBC and Seeking Alpha. Google briefly surpassed Apple in market value for the first time since 2019, underscoring the strategic importance of AI in today’s market.
The partnership is not without its questions, though. Apple currently integrates OpenAI’s ChatGPT for handling especially complex Siri queries—a relationship that, for now, remains unchanged. The company told CNBC that it isn’t making any changes to its agreement with OpenAI, though it remains to be seen how the Google deal might affect this arrangement in the long run. OpenAI, for its part, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
For Apple, this move is reminiscent of its past strategies: leverage external technology when needed, refine and customize it, and, when the time is right, bring those capabilities fully in-house. As one top comment on 9to5Mac put it, “Use Gemini, refine, modify, integrate, then eventually bring in-house. This has been a successful model in the past, it will likely be successful going forward.”
As the AI race heats up, Apple’s decision to join forces with Google marks a bold bet on collaboration over competition—at least for now. For users eagerly awaiting a smarter, more helpful Siri and a new era of Apple Intelligence, the countdown to 2026 just got a little more interesting.
