Overview
- On Alphabet’s Q4 call, executives ignored a direct investor question about the Apple partnership, offering only boilerplate that Google is Apple’s “preferred cloud provider” and that next‑generation Apple foundation models will be based on Gemini.
- Apple has confirmed Gemini as the basis for its upcoming foundation models and says the revamped Siri will be personalized with privacy safeguards, including not tapping users’ Gmail and running on device and via Private Cloud Compute.
- Bloomberg has reported, without company confirmation, that Apple plans to pay roughly $1 billion per year for a tailored Gemini model of about 1.2 trillion parameters.
- Reporting by Mark Gurman indicates Apple intends to introduce the Gemini‑enhanced Siri to developers in an iOS 26.4 beta in the latter half of February.
- Analysts frame Apple’s choice of Google over rivals as a defensive win for Gemini but warn Google could gain visibility into query patterns, while Apple says its existing ChatGPT handoff remains unchanged.