Apple is reportedly closing in on a deal that would see it pay Google about $1 billion annually for a custom version of the Gemini model to completely rebuild Siri.
The agreement, according to Bloomberg, would be one of Apple’s biggest collaborations with an external technology partner in years.
For now, Apple plans to rely on Google’s large-scale model, which has 1.2 trillion parameters, to strengthen Siri’s processing power and decision-making.
That’s nearly eight times more advanced than Apple’s current 150 billion-parameter cloud model. The company sees the deal as a temporary measure while it works to bring its own artificial intelligence system up to par.
Apple tested several models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, before selecting Google’s Gemini earlier this year. Those close to the project said Apple concluded that Gemini offered the best blend of speed, reliability, and contextual understanding.
The revamped Siri, codenamed Linwood, is expected to launch next spring as part of iOS 26.4. The project, known internally as Glenwood, is being overseen by Mike Rockwell, the executive behind the Vision Pro headset, and software engineering chief Craig Federighi.
Under the terms being finalised, Google’s Gemini model will manage Siri’s “summariser” and “planner” functions, which help the assistant interpret user intent and coordinate complex actions.
However, Apple’s own models will still handle several on-device tasks. To protect user data, Gemini will operate within Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers rather than Google’s infrastructure.
Neither company has commented publicly on the partnership. Unlike the Safari search deal, Apple is expected to keep Google’s role behind the scenes, branding Siri’s improvements under its own ecosystem rather than sharing credit.
The collaboration is a rare moment of pragmatism from Apple, which has long avoided outsourcing key software capabilities. But as competitors like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google grow quickly, Apple appears more willing to depend on outside systems, at least for now, to maintain competitiveness.
Despite leaning on Google, Apple has not abandoned its vision to build proprietary AI tools. The company’s in-house models team is reportedly developing a trillion-parameter cloud model, aiming to match Gemini’s quality by next year. Executives say they can phase out the Google technology in due course.
Globally, Apple is also preparing a version of the new Siri for the Chinese market, where Google services are banned. The Chinese variant is expected to run entirely on Apple’s own models with a compliance layer from Alibaba Group, tailored to meet local regulatory demands.
Shares of both companies briefly rose after reports of the talks surfaced, Apple gaining less than 1% to $271.70, and Alphabet rising as much as 3.2% to $286.42.
