Apple Chooses Gemini Over Claude to Power Siri After Cost Concerns

Apple’s next-generation Siri will rely on Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence models, but the decision was far from straightforward. A new report reveals that Apple initially considered rebuilding Siri around Anthropic’s Claude before ultimately turning to Google due to escalating costs and strategic concerns.

Earlier this month, Apple confirmed it would not depend solely on its in-house AI stack to power the revamped Siri. Instead, it chose Gemini as the technological backbone for its voice assistant and broader Apple Intelligence features. However, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, speaking on the TBPN podcast, Claude was once the frontrunner.

Gurman explained that Apple’s relationship with AI providers is more layered than it appears. While Gemini is powering customer-facing features like Siri, the company still uses OpenAI and Anthropic tools extensively behind the scenes.

“Apple runs on Anthropic at this point. Anthropic is powering a lot of the stuff Apple’s doing internally in terms of product development, a lot of their internal tools,” he said on the podcast.

Apple reportedly operates customized versions of Claude on its own servers for internal workflows and engineering tasks. The company also continues leveraging OpenAI technology, with several features in Apple Creator Studio supported by ChatGPT’s image generation capabilities.

Despite Claude’s strong internal presence, Apple’s ambitions to deploy it as the foundation for Siri ran into a major hurdle: cost. Gurman noted that negotiations stalled because Anthropic’s pricing demands were steep and rising.

He said Anthropic was “holding them over a barrel” and wanted several billion dollars a year to power Siri, with costs set to double annually over the next three years.

At the same time, Apple’s long-standing partnership with Google was under legal scrutiny during the U.S. antitrust trial, creating uncertainty around deeper collaboration. Once those concerns eased and the search agreement between the two companies remained intact, Apple had more freedom to work closely with Google.

That cleared the path for Gemini.

Apple CEO Tim Cook later addressed the company’s approach during an earnings call, emphasizing both performance and privacy. The Gemini-powered Siri will operate either directly on-device or through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, designed to keep user data secure.

“We basically determined that Google’s AI technology would provide the most capable foundation for AFM (Apple Foundation Models), and we believe that we can unlock a lot of experiences and innovate in a key way due to the collaboration,” Cook said during the company’s earnings call.

The decision underscores Apple’s pragmatic strategy: partner where necessary, build internally where possible, and diversify across multiple AI providers. While Gemini may power Siri today, Apple’s continued investments in OpenAI tools, Anthropic models, and its own AI research suggest the company is keeping its options open for the future.