Overview
- Bloomberg-sourced reporting says Apple is finalizing an agreement to pay roughly $1 billion annually for a custom 1.2 trillion‑parameter Gemini model to upgrade Siri.
- Under the reported plan, Gemini would handle Siri’s summarization and multi‑step planning, with other assistant features continuing to use Apple’s own models.
- The Google model would run on Apple-owned servers through Private Cloud Compute, keeping user data out of Google’s infrastructure.
- The revamped assistant, internally code-named Linwood, is targeted for spring 2026 with iOS 26.4, following a vendor effort known as Glenwood overseen by Mike Rockwell and Craig Federighi.
- Apple chose Google after testing models from OpenAI and Anthropic, and the arrangement is described as temporary as Apple develops a roughly 1 trillion‑parameter in‑house cloud model; in China, localized deployments are expected to rely on Apple’s models with local partners.