Google Beats OpenAI, Wins $1B Contract for Siri’s ‘Linwood’ Upgrade

Google has beaten its rival OpenAI in a high-stakes “bake-off” to power Apple’s new Siri. The $1 billion-a-year deal will see Google’s 1.2 trillion parameter Gemini model become the “behind-the-scenes” engine for the “Linwood” assistant.
This “interim solution” is part of Apple’s “Glenwood” project to fix its lagging AI. Google’s “ultrapowerful” model, which also beat Anthropic’s, will handle all complex “summariser” and “planner” functions.
The new Siri will be a hybrid. Apple’s 150-billion parameter models will manage simple requests, while Google’s AI will tackle the heavy lifting, a monumental upgrade for the assistant.
This is a reluctant admission of Apple’s AI lag. Top executives Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell are overseeing the project, pushing their teams to build a 1T+ replacement model.
Privacy is the deal’s cornerstone. The Gemini model will be hosted on Apple’s “walled-off” Private Cloud Compute servers, not Google’s. This ensures Google gets its $1B fee but no access to Apple’s user data.