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Apple Chooses Google To Power Its AI
Best AI friends // Illustration by Kate Walker
Apple announced that it has chosen Google as its foundational AI partner.
The Big Picture: Although Apple has long been viewed as the most cutting-edge technology company in the world, it has lagged behind in AI — a misstep that has puzzled investors and customers alike. The company maintains this is because it wants to get AI right while honoring Apple’s historic commitment to privacy. That doesn’t mean Apple wants to be left behind, so a partnership with a mainstay firm like Google appears to offer the best of both worlds in the C-suite.
Behind The Deal: Apple is making a safe bet on AI by going with Google.
Apple tested deeper partnerships with OpenAI (which it already works with on Siri) and Anthropic, but ultimately chose Google’s Gemini to build its upcoming Foundation Models, which power its AI system, Apple Intelligence.
This means all of Apple’s AI products will run on Gemini under the hood, including a revamped version of Siri set to roll out this year.
The companies didn’t disclose financial terms, but TechCrunch reports Apple could be paying Google roughly $1 billion dollars annually for the partnership.
The deal is not exclusive, meaning Apple can strike other third-party AI deals or eventually transition to its own proprietary software when it’s ready.
Last Prompt: Apple notes that “Google’s AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models,” which likely means the company feels most comfortable working with a partner that has been a tech leader for years and has a massive amount of capital to deploy toward building AI infrastructure. The partnership isn’t too surprising, given that Google has long paid Apple billions per year to be the default Safari search engine — so they clearly like each other… even if antitrust lawyers really don’t.
In probably related news, Google now joins Apple in the $4 trillion club.
The Future: Considering that Apple’s hardware will now be the differentiating factor in the AI wars, it’s increasingly likely that hardware chief John Ternus could be the top pick to succeed Tim Cook as CEO.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited, Polled, and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.