Apple and Google Announce Multi-Year Partnership For Siri

Apple and Google announced on 12th January that they are partnering on artificial intelligence, with Google's Gemini models powering Apple's next-generation Siri voice assistant. 

The multi-year agreement makes Google's technology the foundation for Apple's foundational models going forward, ending years of Apple pursuing AI independence. Apple stated that after "thorough assessment," Google's technology offers "the most robust foundation" for building AI systems at Apple scale.

Apple, one of the world's most vertically integrated hardware companies, decided that building AI models from first principles was either too expensive, too slow, or too risky to justify continuing separately. Instead of controlling its AI stack internally, Apple is now dependent on Google for the foundational intelligence that powers its flagship assistant.

Apple postponed AI-powered Siri features in 2025, telling users it needed "more time than anticipated to implement these features." That was basically saying that they cannot build that capability at the quality level and speed the market expects. Meanwhile, every other major tech company, including Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, has already invested billions in AI infrastructure and deployed products. Apple faced competitive pressure it could not ignore.

Apple is also not abandoning its partnership with OpenAI. The company uses ChatGPT for complex queries within Siri and told CNBC the OpenAI integration would continue unchanged. So Apple is now dependent on both Google and OpenAI for AI capability, a position that suggests no single provider offers everything Apple needs, but also that Apple cannot afford to build everything itself.