During Alphabet’s Q4 2025 earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai added to the confusion regarding where, exactly, the upcoming Gemini-powered Siri will run. Here’s what he said.
A bit of background
Since Apple confirmed that Google’s Gemini would power new Siri features, there has been a lingering question about the privacy aspects of what Tim Cook refers to as a “collaboration” between the two companies.
While many assumed that Google would have access to user data, Apple vaguely countered this notion with its usual privacy-first speech.
Here’s Apple’s original statement on the collaboration:
“After careful evaluation, we determined that Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we’re excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users.”
Currently, Apple’s foundation models run either on-device or on Private Cloud Compute (PCC), Apple’s cloud AI infrastructure that maintains user privacy when data needs to be uploaded for inference that goes beyond what on-device models can deliver.
While Apple’s statements made it seem like the Gemini-powered Siri would run on its own infrastructure, Bloomberg reported a few days later that this would likely not be the case:
In a potential policy shift for Apple, the two partners are discussing hosting the chatbot directly on Google servers running powerful chips known as TPUs, or tensor processing units. The more immediate Siri update, in contrast, will operate on Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute servers, which rely on high-end Mac chips for processing.
A few days after that, during Apple’s Q4 2025 earnings call, Tim Cook volunteered the following information when analyst Ben Reitzes asked how Apple had decided to partner with Google, and if there was “an opportunity (…) to share in revenue too”:
Yeah, we basically determined that Google’s AI technology would provide the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models. And we believe that we can unlock a lot of experiences and innovate in a key way due to collaboration. We’ll continue to run on the device, and run in Private Cloud Compute, and maintain our industry-leading privacy standards in doing so. In terms of the arrangement with Google, we’re not releasing the details of that.
This seemed to reaffirm (albeit vaguely) the notion that the Gemini-powered Siri would run on Apple’s infrastructure, and that Cook was simply refusing to discuss the financial aspects of the partnership. Which brings us to today.
Sundar Pichai speaks about the collaboration
During Alphabet’s Q4 2025 earnings call moments ago, CEO Sundar Pichai’s prepared remarks included the following statement:
“We are collaborating with Apple as their preferred cloud provider and to develop the next generation of Apple Foundation Models, based on Gemini technology.”
A few moments later, Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler made an almost identical statement during his own prepared remarks:
“I would start by joining Sundar in how pleased I am that we are collaborating with Apple as their preferred cloud provider and to develop the next generation of Apple Foundation Models, based on Gemini technology.”
Putting all recent vague statements together, it is increasingly looking like:
- Tim Cook’s statement that Apple would “continue to run on the device, and run in Private Cloud Compute, and maintain our industry-leading privacy standards in doing so” didn’t directly relate to the Gemini partnership, but rather to other Apple Intelligence features, services, and initiatives.
- Apple’s original statement that Google’s technology provided “the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models” didn’t relate to Apple’s current foundation models, but rather to what the Google execs referred to as “the next generation of Apple Foundation Models, based on Gemini technology”.
- Google is now Apple’s “preferred cloud provider” for… something that they didn’t explicitly state, but is likely the Gemini-based Siri.
9to5Mac’s take
So far, neither Apple nor Google has given a definitive answer on where exactly the Gemini-powered Siri will run, so there must be a reason for that. It could be because, per Bloomberg’s report, the companies are still ironing out the details, and the rollout may be phased, with just “the more immediate Siri update” running on Apple’s PCC.
Earlier tonight, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman doubled down on his previous report, adding that Apple might be referring to Siri and Apple Intelligence as separate systems, running on separate infrastructures:
Be it as it may, it is clear that neither company is ready to directly address the technical aspects of the so-called collaboration. Every statement about where the new Siri will run has been vague and conflated with seemingly unrelated aspects and issues.
As things stand, it increasingly appears that the Gemini-powered Siri will run on Google’s infrastructure, despite both companies’ refusal to actually confirm that. Whether Apple will address the privacy aspects of the collaboration when it officially announces the Gemini-powered Siri, remains to be seen.
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