Google’s strategy to become a premier “AI supplier” has paid off massively, culminating in a $1 billion-a-year deal with its biggest rival, Apple. Google’s Gemini AI will now be the “behind-the-scenes” engine for the new Siri.
Apple is using Google’s 1.2 trillion parameter model as an “interim solution” for its “Glenwood” project, the internal effort to fix Siri. Google’s AI won a “bake-off” against OpenAI and Anthropic, proving its superiority in “planner” and “summariser” tasks.
The new “Linwood” Siri will be a hybrid. Apple’s 150-billion parameter models will handle simple tasks, while Google’s “ultrapowerful” AI will manage complex, multi-step requests. This is a monumental upgrade for the assistant.
This partnership is a reluctant move for Apple, overseen by Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell. While Apple works to build a 1T+ replacement model, this “temporary” fix could last for years.
Privacy was the key to the deal. The Gemini model will be hosted on Apple’s “walled-off” Private Cloud Compute servers. This ensures Google gets its $1B fee but no access to Apple’s user data.
