Apple has selected Google’s Gemini to underpin the next version of Siri, according to CNBC, in a move that ties one of Apple’s signature products to the generative AI system of its biggest search rival.
The report says Apple is preparing AI-powered Siri features for release this year and has settled on Google’s model as the engine behind them. That would put Google technology inside a core Apple service at a moment when both companies are racing to define how consumers interact with phones through assistants, chatbots, and on-device AI tools.
The choice is notable because Siri has long been one of Apple’s most visible software products, but it has also become a symbol of how much the company has had to catch up in the AI era. Apple has been under pressure to deliver a more capable assistant while keeping its usual emphasis on privacy, hardware integration, and control over the user experience. Using Gemini suggests Apple is willing to lean on an outside model if it helps move the product forward.
The CNBC report adds a market twist as well: Google’s market value surpassed Apple for the first time since 2019 as updated AI features rolled out. That backdrop makes the Siri decision more than a product story. It is also another sign that the AI race is reshaping the competitive balance among the largest technology companies.
If Apple follows through, the decision could matter in two ways. First, it would give Siri a more capable AI foundation than many users have seen from Apple’s assistant in recent years. Second, it would show that even companies with full-stack consumer ecosystems may still rely on competitors when the fastest route to better AI performance runs through a third-party model.
The report does not say Apple has abandoned its own work on AI or that Gemini will replace all Siri functions. It does, however, indicate that Google’s model is the selected backend for the upcoming AI-powered version of the assistant. That makes the arrangement one of the clearest examples yet of how the biggest names in tech are increasingly intertwined, even when they are also direct rivals.
The significance goes beyond a single product update. Siri has been a public marker of Apple’s software ambition for years, and any move to rework it with a large external model will be read as a practical admission that the company is willing to mix its walled-garden approach with outside infrastructure when the payoff is compelling enough.
That does not remove the competitive tension. If anything, it sharpens it. Apple would be relying on Google’s AI to improve a feature that sits at the center of the iPhone experience, while Google is simultaneously strengthening its own AI position across search and consumer products. The result is a rare overlap between cooperation and rivalry at the top of the mobile market.
For now, the key takeaway is simple: Apple is preparing a new Siri, and Google’s Gemini is reportedly the model chosen to make it work.
