Much has been written in recent months about the tortoise-like pace of Apple's AI-related advancements at a time when the rest of the tech universe is moving at a rabbit-like sprint. But, in a nod to that age-old tale, the tortoise (Apple) might have just pulled an ace card out of its proverbial sleeves, leveraging Google's Gemini-related prowess to bolster its own network effect via Siri, while leaving the likes of Elon Musk stewing in sullen resentment.
The tie-up between Apple's Siri voice assistant and Google's Gemini AI models
As we noted in a dedicated post recently, Apple has formally selected Google's Gemini to power the next generation of its on-device Foundation Models.
The tie-up will also allow Apple to launch a revamped version of Siri, possibly with the upcoming iOS 26.4 update, bringing the much-delayed in-app actions, personal context awareness, and on-screen awareness to its bespoke voice assistant.
Critically, Apple is reportedly deploying a gigantic 1.2-trillion-parameter custom Gemini AI model on its cloud servers to power AI features under the ambit of its Private Apple Intelligence - where relatively simple AI tasks are performed by using on-device models and the computational resources of the device itself, while the more complex tasks are offloaded to Apple's private cloud servers using encrypted and stateless data for subsequent inference.
Elon Musk is predictably sour on the deal, but his gripes are misplaced, as Google gains a paltry $1 billion per year, while Apple substantially strengthens its network effect
Elon Musk, quite predictably, is not too keen on the deal, terming it as an "unreasonable concentration of power for Google." Of course, the CEO of Tesla and xAI is not an objective bystander here, having already sued Apple and OpenAI for teaming up to stifle competition.
Even so, Musk's gripes against Google are quite flimsy, especially as the tech giant does not gain much from this deal other than the reported $1 billion per year for licensing its Gemini AI models to the iPhone manufacturer.
On the other hand, Apple gains a lot from this arrangement. Consider a scenario where you ask the revamped Siri to book a restaurant reservation. Would you then tell your friends that Google's Gemini booked the restaurant reservation? Of course not, as whatever technology powers Apple's bespoke voice assistant at the backend won't matter in the greater scheme of things, especially as users would only see and appreciate Apple's Siri with seemingly enhanced agentic abilities.
This is Apple's trump card, one that would substantially boost its network effect and the overall value of its Siri-based AI interface, while allowing Google's Gemini to act as a critical buffer until Apple's own AI abilities reach a satisfactory level.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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