The 'Siri + Gemini' Deal
For decades, Apple’s core philosophy has been simple: "We build everything." They make their own chips, they write their own software, they control the entire ecosystem. This total control is their superpower. It's what makes an iPhone an iPhone.
So, what do you call it when the most controlling company on Earth decides to outsource its brain?
You call it the biggest tech story of the year. The bombshell reports are all but confirmed: Apple is finalizing a massive, billion-dollar deal to license Google's Gemini AI. The plan is to build Gemini’s powerful, 1.2 trillion parameter "brain" directly into the next version of Siri, which is expected to finally make our digital assistant smart.
But here’s the most telling part. According to these reports, Apple is working overtime to make sure you never know it's Google. The new, brilliant Siri that can finally write your emails and plan your vacation won't say "Powered by Google." It will just be... "Siri."
They're even reportedly calling it "AFM v10" (Apple Foundation Model) inside the company to hide the Google connection. Apple is buying its rival's engine, sticking an Apple logo on it, and pretending they built the whole car.
Let's be clear. This isn't just a "pragmatic partnership." This is a white flag. It's a public (if quiet) admission from Apple that after a decade of letting Siri stagnate, they have lost the AI war. They were lapped by the competition, and now they have to pay their biggest rival to run the core intelligence of their future products.
The AI war is over, and Google just won.
How We Got Here - Siri's Decade of Being "Dumb"
To understand why this Google deal is such a massive surrender, you have to remember one crucial fact: Apple was first.
It’s easy to forget, but when Siri launched back in 2011, it was pure magic. It was the original AI assistant, and it blew our minds. We were talking to our phones, and they were talking back! Apple had a ten-year head start.
So what happened?
In a word: nothing. For the next decade, Siri just… stagnated. While Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa were learning to understand complex context, hold real conversations, and connect to thousands of services, Siri was stuck in 2011. It became the assistant you only used for two things: setting a timer and asking, "What's the weather?"
If you ever tried asking Siri a complex, multi-step question, you know the pain of its favorite response: "Here's what I found on the web." It wasn't an assistant; it was a glorified voice-activated Google search.
The real question is why. Why did the richest, most innovative company in the world let its magical head start evaporate?
The answer is ironic: Apple’s biggest strength was its biggest AI weakness.
Their entire brand is built on privacy. Apple has (rightfully) built its reputation on protecting your data. Their philosophy has always been "on-device processing" - the magic happens inside your phone, and your personal information never leaves.
That’s great for privacy, but it’s a death sentence for building AI.
While Apple was putting its AI in a tiny, on-device box, Google was doing the opposite. Google was feeding its AI models everything. Every Google search, every Google Maps route, every Gmail, and every YouTube video was being used to train a massive "brain" in the cloud. Apple was training its AI with a textbook; Google was training its AI with the entire Library of Congress.
Apple had essentially handcuffed itself. It was trying to win a supercomputer race using a pocket calculator.
This went on for years, with Apple falling further and further behind. Then, in late 2022, the "Oh Crap" moment arrived: ChatGPT.
The launch of ChatGPT changed the entire game overnight. Suddenly, the AI war wasn't about setting timers. It was about writing code, drafting legal contracts, summarizing 100-page reports, and creating art from scratch. This new "generative AI" was a true revolution, and Apple was nowhere to be found. They had no competitor. They were, for the first time in a long time, completely and totally left behind.
The "Defeat" Isn't Just the Deal, It's the Details
If Apple were simply "partnering" with Google, they would announce it proudly, just as they do with other partners. But they aren't. They're trying to hide it.
When you look at the details of the deal, you see that "defeat" isn't just a strong word; it's the only word. This isn't a partnership of equals; it's a surrender.
Detail 1: The Power Gap is a Canyon
The first clue is the staggering difference in power. Let’s put it in plain numbers.
Apple has been working on its own internal AI models. The current cloud-based model powering "Apple Intelligence" is reportedly around 150 billion parameters. (A "parameter" is a variable the AI uses to make predictions; the more parameters, the "smarter" and more capable the model is).
The custom Google Gemini model they are licensing is 1.2 trillion parameters.
This isn't a small gap. It's not a gap at all; it's a canyon. Apple's in-house AI is a tiny fraction of the size and power of the model they’re being forced to buy. They aren't licensing Gemini to add a few new features; they're licensing it because it's on a completely different level of reality. They're bringing in a supercomputer to replace their pocket calculator.
Detail 2: It's a "Stopgap" With No End in Sight
Apple is telling its investors and (presumably) itself that this is just a "temporary solution" - a "stopgap" to hold them over while their own AI team races to build a competitor.
But here’s the problem: they are trying to hit a target that is accelerating away from them.
Reports say Apple is racing to build its own 1 trillion parameter model, but it won't be ready in time for the new Siri launch. They are in a desperate sprint just to build what Google already has. By the time Apple finally builds its 1T model, Google will have moved on to its next model, and the goalposts will have shifted again.
Apple isn't just behind; they're falling further behind. They're stuck in a trap. They can't catch up, so they have to keep paying their rival, which only gives Google more money to innovate and stay ahead.
Detail 3: The Secrecy Is the "Smoking Gun"
This is the most damning detail of all. Apple has no intention of publicizing this deal. In fact, they are actively hiding it.
According to multiple reports, Apple is referring to the Google-built Gemini model internally as "AFM v10" - short for "Apple Foundation Model v10."
Think about that. They are literally rebranding their rival's product inside their own company to hide the connection.
Companies don't hide partnerships they are proud of. Apple is doing this because it knows this deal shatters its core brand promise: "We make the whole widget, and it's better than everyone else's." They can't admit that the new, "revolutionary" Siri is actually a Google product in an Apple costume.
What "Google Won the AI War" Actually Means
To be clear, when we say Google "won the war," we need to define which war we're talking about.
Apple is still the undisputed king of the "hardware war." They make the best phones, watches, and laptops. They win on design, build quality, and profit margins every single time. They also still win the "ecosystem war." The App Store and the "blue bubble" iMessage walled garden are fortresses that no one can breach.
But this deal proves they have lost the "war for intelligence."
This is the real war for the next decade. It’s the battle for the "brain" that will power all that beautiful hardware - the AI layer that will sit on top of everything we do. And Apple just conceded that its "brain" will be built by Google.
For the foreseeable future, the "intelligence" inside both Android phones and iOS phones will be a Google product.
The financial side of this is staggering. Think about it:
- Google already pays Apple an estimated $20 billion every single year just to be the default search engine in the Safari browser.
- Now, Apple is going to pay Google an estimated $1 billion per year to license the Gemini AI to power its owncore assistant, Siri.
This is a grand slam for Google. They have successfully turned their biggest competitor into their biggest customer... twice.
Google has achieved total dominance of the information layer, and Apple is now paying them for the privilege.
A Quick Note on Privacy (Because Apple is Smart)
Before you panic about Google reading your iMessages, there's one critical detail. Apple was smart about how they surrendered.
According to the reports, Apple isn't just sending your data to Google's servers. Instead, they will run the 1.2 trillion parameter Gemini model on their own custom-built "Private Cloud Compute" servers.
Think of it this way: Google is providing the engine (the trained AI model), but Apple is building the secure factory it runs in and providing the fuel (your data), which never leaves Apple's control. Google provides the "brain in a box," but Apple keeps the box locked and never lets Google see what's inside.
It's the most privacy-friendly way to use your rival's technology, but it doesn't change the fundamental fact: the "brain" itself isn't Apple's.
A New King, an Old Kingdom
So, let's bring it all home.
Apple is still the undisputed king of the "kingdom." They make the beautiful, premium hardware - the physical castle we all live in. But in the race to build the "brain" for that kingdom, they stumbled. Now, they've been forced to secretly hand the "keys to the throne" - the core intelligence that will power their future - to their biggest rival.
For us as users, the change will be jarring, in a good way. Sometime in 2026, we’ll update our iPhones, and Siri will suddenly feel 100 times smarter. It will finally understand us, plan things for us, and work like the assistant we were promised a decade ago. But we'll know the secret: it's not because Apple had a breakthrough. It's because we'll be talking to a Google product in an Apple costume.
But the biggest takeaway isn't just about Apple and Google. It’s about the staggering consolidation of power.
This deal means that the AI "brain" on virtually every single smartphone on the planet, whether it's an Android or an iPhone, will be built by one company: Google.
This move shows just how powerful and dominant centralized AI has become. It also raises massive, uncomfortable questions for the future. Is this the world we want? A world where one company's AI models shape the reality of billions of people?
Or does this prove, now more than ever, that we need new, open, and even decentralized approaches to building artificial intelligence? At Ozak AI, we believe this is a wake-up call. We believe the future of AI shouldn't belong to just one or two mega-corporations. It should be open, accessible, and built by everyone.
This "secret deal" isn't just the end of the AI war; it's the beginning of a new conversation about who gets to control our intelligent future.
