Google Set to Face Investor Grilling Over Billion-Dollar Apple Siri Deal

Alphabet Earnings Spotlight Shifts to Apple AI Deal

As Alphabet prepares to report fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, the spotlight has shifted from financial figures to the company's newly minted artificial intelligence partnership with Apple. While analysts expect roughly fifteen percent year-over-year revenue growth, the real focus will be on details surrounding the Siri-Gemini collaboration announced in January.

A Billion-Dollar Bet on Gemini

The multi-year deal places Google's Gemini AI at the core of Apple's next-generation foundation models. Apple will reportedly pay approximately one billion dollars annually for access to a custom 1.2 trillion-parameter Gemini model, representing an eightfold upgrade from Apple's current 150 billion-parameter system. Analysts view the partnership as a major win for Google over competitors including OpenAI and Anthropic, with Apple reportedly rejecting Anthropic partly due to the latter seeking around 1.5 billion dollars per year.

Gemini-Powered Siri Coming Soon

Apple plans to unveil the revamped Siri in the second half of February, with the update arriving in iOS 26.4 beta. The upgraded assistant promises to understand on-screen content, leverage personal context for task completion, and deliver more conversational responses. These were features Apple first teased at WWDC 2024 but delayed due to technical challenges with its in-house models.

Privacy and Competition Questions Remain

Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed the partnership while emphasising that Siri will not access users' Gmail or similar services. Apple Intelligence will continue running on devices and Private Cloud Compute servers. However, the deal raises questions about Apple's existing arrangement with OpenAI, which integrates ChatGPT for complex queries. Apple has stated there will be no changes to that agreement, though analysts suggest it effectively relegates ChatGPT to a supporting role.

What Investors Want to Know

With 2.5 billion active Apple devices potentially running Gemini-powered features, the scale of the partnership is significant for Google. Investors will be pressing for clarity on revenue sharing, data handling, and how the deal fits into Alphabet's broader AI monetisation strategy.