Google is set to add a staggering $1 billion to its annual revenue by becoming the silent AI partner for its chief rival, Apple. A nearly-finalized deal will have Apple license a custom 1.2 trillion parameter version of Google’s Gemini AI to power the core of its new Siri assistant. This “behind-the-scenes” role makes Google a critical technology supplier for the iPhone, placing its AI at the heart of Apple’s ecosystem even as the two companies compete fiercely in the market.
This partnership is the result of Apple’s urgent need to fix Siri and catch up in the generative AI space. After evaluating all major AI models, including those from OpenAI and Anthropic, Apple’s leadership—including software head Craig Federighi—selected Gemini as the best-in-class “interim solution.” The technology will be used to run the “summariser” and “planner” functions of the new Siri (code-named “Linwood”), which is scheduled for a spring release.
The 1.2 trillion parameter model represents a quantum leap in power for Siri, which currently relies on much smaller 150-billion parameter models for cloud tasks. This raw power is what Apple needs to process complex, multi-step requests and provide the intelligent, context-aware responses users now expect from modern AI. The internal project to integrate this technology, “Glenwood,” is a top priority for Apple’s software and services divisions.
A key provision of the deal is that Apple will maintain full control over user data. The Gemini model will be hosted on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers, not Google’s. This “walled-off” architecture is a non-negotiable for Apple, ensuring its privacy-first marketing is not compromised. Google, in this case, is simply providing the model, not processing the data, a crucial distinction for both companies.
This deal solidifies Google’s role as the “AI supplier” to the industry, with companies like Snap also using its platform. For Apple, this is a temporary fix, as it is actively developing a 1 trillion parameter in-house model to eventually replace Gemini. However, given the lead Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro has on AI leaderboards, this temporary arrangement could become a long-term, $1 billion-a-year dependency.
