Apple and Alphabet have reached an agreement in which Google's Gemini will power Siri's artificial intelligence capabilities.
The companies said these models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.
“After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google's AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models, and we are excited about the innovative new experiences it will bring to Apple users,” Apple and Google said in a statement.
CNBC first reported the news on Monday.
Alphabet shares rose as much as 1% on the news, and the tech giant's market cap briefly reached $4 trillion during Monday trading. Last week, the company overtook Apple to become the second most valuable company after Nvidia.
Speculation about a possible deal has been rampant since last year. Bloomberg reported in November that Apple was considering paying $1 billion a year to use its Gemini model.
“For Cupertino, which revolves around an invisible AI strategy, the elephant in the room is what the city has been waiting for,” Wedbush analysts wrote in a Monday morning note, referring to Apple's Cupertino headquarters. “We believe this will be progressively positive for both Google as a premier infrastructure model, and for Apple as an important testing moment as a stepping stone to accelerate its AI strategy into 2026 and beyond.”
Apple is Get a head start in the AI assistant race That was when Siri launched on iOS devices in 2011.
However, the iPhone maker has lagged behind its competitors since launching ChatGPT in late 2022. Apple is Some upgrades to Siri have been delayedAnd Apple revamped its AI division late last year.
For Google, integration with major US mobile phone platforms provides additional distribution advantages. In addition to being available via a standalone app, Gemini powers some Google search features and is the default AI assistant on the company's Pixel smartphones.
Thomas Hudson, deputy principal analyst at research firm Forrester, told Business Insider that the partnership could “seem counterintuitive” given that Apple and Google compete in the smartphone market.
But he pointed to a long-running agreement to make Google the default search engine on Apple's iPhones as an example of a past partnership between the two companies. In December, a federal judge ordered Google to restrict searches and searches. AI app contract for a one-year term.
