Breaking: Apple strikes deal with Google to test Gemini-powered Siri, after Anthropic demanded $1.5B/year

Summary

Apple reached a formal agreement with Google to evaluate and test Google's Gemini AI model as the summarizer component in a new Siri capability. The move came after Anthropic, the initial front-runner, demanded over $1.5 billion per year. Apple rejected that price, and Google accepted more favorable financial terms.

Apple is building a system called World Knowledge Answers integrated into Siri. The system has three parts: a planner that interprets voice or text input, a search system that scans the web or user data, and a summarizer that pulls results together. Gemini would serve as the summarizer and run on Apple's private cloud computing servers. Google has already delivered the technology, and both companies are now fine-tuning and testing it.

Apple considered acquiring Perplexity to enhance Siri's search capabilities but declined. Perplexity relies on other foundation models rather than controlling its full technology stack. The Google partnership gives Apple a more strategically sound option and positions it to compete with OpenAI and Perplexity's answer-engine model without building its own large language models.

One tension surrounds future monetization. World Knowledge Answers likely functions as a cost center in the near term, answering broad informational queries. If the system evolves into agentic commerce where Siri executes purchases on top of answering questions, both companies stand to gain. Google would collect more user query data, and Apple could take a cut of transactions flowing through the summarizer.

The deal is framed as an evaluation and testing phase. Commercial rollout remains months away and may not appear in the next iPhone event.