Apple Pays Google $1 Billion a Year for Gemini-Powered Siri

Apple is executing a historic overhaul of Siri: the company is paying Google approximately $1 billion annually for access to a custom version of Google's 1.2 trillion-parameter Gemini AI model. This is a massive upgrade from Apple's previous 150-billion parameter system.

The new Siri is expected to launch in spring 2026 as part of the broader "Apple Intelligence" rollout. It will be more conversational, handle multi-step tasks, and better understand context within iOS. To protect user privacy, the model runs on Apple's own private cloud computing servers rather than Google's infrastructure.

Looking ahead, Apple is opening Siri to rival AI services. iOS 27 reportedly will allow users to choose between Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, and other assistants, positioning the iPhone as an open platform for AI services.

Apple is simultaneously developing its own one trillion-parameter AI model, aiming to eventually replace its reliance on Gemini. The company is also working to distill Google's large models into smaller, secure components suited for on-device AI processing on iPhones.

For enterprise leaders, this matters: Siri is transitioning from a weak assistant to a powerful agent. It changes what iPhones can do in business environments, and the private cloud architecture deserves close attention from a data governance perspective.