In a move that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, Apple and Google have released a joint statement confirming that Siri will now be powered by Google’s Gemini AI.
The announcement, which dropped overnight, confirms that the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be built on the back of Google’s Gemini models and cloud infrastructure.
This partnership is a massive shift for a company that has built its brand on vertical integration and controlling every aspect of the user experience.
A clear admission of failure
For a company with the massive capital resources of Apple, relying on their biggest rival for the most important technology shift in a decade is a stunning admission of defeat.
Apple has spent years trying to fix Siri in-house, but the persistent delays and lack of progress have forced Tim Cook to look outside the campus for help.
By choosing Gemini, Apple is effectively saying that their own AI research and development simply isn’t good enough to compete with what Google and OpenAI have built.
“Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology.”
Joint Statement, Apple and Google.
The pattern of missed opportunities
This AI stumble isn’t an isolated incident, but rather the latest in a string of high-profile failures for the tech giant under its current leadership.
We recently saw the total cancellation of the Apple car project, a decade-long money pit that ultimately went nowhere despite billions of dollars in investment.
More recently, the Apple Vision Pro has failed to set the world on fire, with sluggish sales and reports of production cuts as the market for high-end “spatial computing” remains niche.
The Vision Pro launched in Australia for A$5,999, a price point that clearly alienated the mass market and left the product without the momentum needed for a second generation.
Tim Cook’s leadership under the spotlight
Questions are now being asked about Tim Cook’s ability to lead Apple through the most significant technological transition since the launch of the original iPhone.
While Cook has been a master of supply chains and incremental upgrades, he has failed to position Apple as a pioneer in the Generative AI race.
Instead of leading the way, Apple is now in a position where it must pay its chief competitor—the creator of Android—to keep its products relevant.
“After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models.”
Joint Statement, Apple and Google.
What this means for the iPhone
For Australian users, this means the revamped Siri experience, which has been delayed until later in 2026, will finally have some actual brains behind it.
The new Siri is expected to arrive as part of a future iOS update, likely requiring the latest hardware to take full advantage of the local processing and private cloud compute.
However, the irony of using an iPhone that relies on Google’s intelligence to operate its core features will not be lost on the tech-savvy crowd.
Google wins the platform war
While Apple is the one shipping the hardware, Google is the one now providing the “brain” that lives inside the ecosystem.
This deal validates Google’s massive pivot toward AI and places Gemini at the heart of the world’s most popular premium smartphone.
It is a massive win for Alphabet, whose stock has reacted positively to the news of becoming the default intelligence layer for over two billion active Apple devices.
Privacy and the cloud
Apple is quick to point out that these features will still run on their Private Cloud Compute to maintain their industry-leading privacy standards.
However, the fact remains that the underlying foundation of the “Apple Intelligence” experience is no longer strictly an Apple product.
We are seeing a version of Apple that is no longer the innovator, but a fast follower that couldn’t even manage to catch up on its own.
The cost of being late
Reports suggest Apple could be paying as much as A$1.5 billion annually to Google for the privilege of using Gemini technology.
This is on top of the existing multi-billion dollar deal that keeps Google Search as the default on the Safari browser.
For a company that pridefully avoids putting other brands’ stickers on its boxes, this is a bitter pill for the executive team at Cupertino to swallow.
If you are the owner of a recent iPhone model, you will hopefully see an iOS update that leverages Google-powered Siri and I really hope it can finally make Siri smart, as it’s capabilities has lagged being AI voice assistants for years.
One thing is certain: the era of Apple doing it all themselves is officially over.
This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that the also have Android and Chrome
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 12, 2026
