The Partnership
Google’s Gemini will provide the foundation for Apple Foundation Models, powering an enhanced Siri launching with iOS 26.4 in spring 2026. Bloomberg reports Apple will pay approximately $1 billion annually for Gemini access, though neither company confirmed financial terms. The custom Gemini model may feature around 1.2 trillion parameters, far exceeding Apple’s current 150 billion-parameter cloud models.
What’s New for Siri
The revamped Siri, first announced at Apple’s 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference, will include:
On-screen awareness: Understanding what users are viewing to provide contextual help
Personal context: Grasping individual preferences and information across apps
Deeper app integration: Performing complex, multi-step tasks within and across applications
Enhanced conversation: More sophisticated queries and natural responses powered by Gemini’s language capabilities
Apple demonstrated Siri pulling flight information and lunch plans from multiple apps when asked about a user’s mother, without being told where to look.
Privacy Maintained
Despite partnering with Google, Apple will maintain its privacy standards by running Gemini models through its Private Cloud Compute infrastructure. User data will remain inaccessible to Google for training or storage purposes.
Strategic Implications
The partnership addresses mounting pressure on Apple to compete in AI, where rivals have deployed advanced features while Siri lagged. Google recently surpassed Apple in market capitalisation for the first time since 2019, highlighting the AI-driven power shift in Silicon Valley.
For Google, the deal represents a distribution victory, placing Gemini on over a billion iPhones. Apple acknowledges that even with vast resources, partnering with AI specialists makes strategic sense.
The agreement complements Apple’s existing OpenAI partnership, which integrates ChatGPT into Siri for certain queries, suggesting Apple is pursuing a multi-model AI strategy.
What’s Next For Siri
The spring 2026 Siri launch is just the beginning of Apple’s AI transformation. The company continues developing proprietary models alongside the Google partnership. This is a hybrid approach where internal models handle privacy-sensitive tasks while Gemini provides computational power for complex reasoning.
For iPhone users, the result should be a virtual assistant that finally delivers on Apple’s 2011 promise: a truly intelligent helper that understands context, anticipates needs, and seamlessly handles complex tasks across iOS.
