At the recent Google Cloud Next26 conference, Google officially confirmed that Apple has selected it as its preferred cloud service provider, and both companies are jointly developing the next generation of Apple Foundation models based on the Gemini model. This means that the highly anticipated new Siri, featuring personalization and context awareness, is set to launch in 2026. The core of this collaboration lies in combining Gemini's powerful multimodal processing capabilities with Apple's proprietary cloud computing architecture, aiming to address long-standing shortcomings of Siri in following complex instructions and identifying cross-app intentions.
Since Apple showcased its "screen-aware" vision at the 2024 WWDC, the implementation of Apple's AI has continuously faced challenges due to technical barriers. Through an annual investment of about $1 billion, Apple has successfully refined Gemini's large model capabilities into a controllable version on the edge, significantly enhancing the intelligent interaction limits of devices such as iPhones and iPads while ensuring user privacy. This move marks Apple's formal shift from a solely self-developed path to a dual strategy of "self-development + top-tier external support."
The industry generally believes that this iteration of Siri is not only a change in interaction form but also a signal that AI agents are entering serious productivity. With the clear key date of 2026, the global smart terminal market may experience a comprehensive paradigm shift from "command interaction" to "intention understanding," further solidifying Google's leading position in the competition for model infrastructure, and also providing Apple with access to the first tier of large models.
