Apple decides to use Google's $1 billion-a-year AI for new Siri - Bloomberg

Apple, which has traditionally relied on its own technology in product development, intends to pay Google about $1 billion annually for access to a super-powered artificial intelligence model for a long-promised update of its Siri voice assistant, Bloomberg writes, citing sources. The deal will allow Apple to buy time to develop its own AI systems. Google now pays Apple about $20 billion for the use of its default search engine on the company's devices.

According to Bloomberg's interlocutors, for $1 billion a year Apple will get access to Google's AI model with 1.2 trillion parameters, Bloomberg reported. That's eight times more sophisticated than the model currently used in the iPhone and other company devices, TechCrunch noted. The increased power will greatly expand Siri's ability to process complex data and understand context. Preparations for a deal between the tech giants are in the final stages, but plans could still change, sources told Bloomberg.

Apple intends to use Google's AI model as a temporary solution to launch a Siri update, and apply them until its own AI becomes powerful enough, Bloomberg's interlocutors said. Google's neural network should provide the updated Siri with summarization and planning functions. Apple said in March 2025 that a number of AI-powered Siri improvements have been delayed until 2026. According to Bloomberg, the company has scheduled the updated voice assistant for release next spring.

Siri has traditionally been inferior to the digital assistant Google Assistant in terms of functionality, especially in processing complex multi-step queries and integration with third-party applications, notes Reuters. Initially, Google was not the favorite in the fight for the contract to provide Siri - in it was leading Anthropic, Bloomberg writes. However, Anthropic, according to the agency, requested more than $1.5 billion a year for the use of its technology, and as a result Apple turned to Google.

Amid delays in the launch of AI services, Apple held a reshuffle in the management: the head of the company Tim Cook lost confidence in the ability of the head of AI-direction John Giannandrea to lead the development of Siri and handed over the management of the project to Mike Rockwell, Bloomberg reported.

Apple's shares have grown by a third over the past three months and reached an all-time high at the end of October amid renewed interest in the iPhone. According to FactSet, the consensus rating of the company's securities is now "above the market" (Overweight, corresponding to a recommendation to buy). The average target price of $280.2 per share calculated by the service assumes growth of quotations by 3.7% in the next 12 months.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor