Apple Inc. is in early discussions with Alphabet about licensing the Google Gemini artificial-intelligence engine to power a redesigned version of Siri, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The move would represent Apple’s most significant step to outsource core generative-AI functions and deepen its long-running, if uneasy, partnership with its biggest smartphone rival. According to the report, Google has already begun training a custom Gemini model that could operate on Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, addressing the iPhone maker’s privacy requirements. Apple has not decided whether to proceed; it is concurrently evaluating in-house foundation models and has held talks with Anthropic and OpenAI. A decision is expected in the coming weeks, and the next-generation Siri—delayed by engineering setbacks—is now slated for launch in spring 2026. News of the exploratory talks sent Alphabet shares up 3.7 % and Apple up 1.6 % in U.S. trading on Friday. Both companies declined to comment, Reuters reported. Siri has lagged Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa in handling complex, multi-step requests, and a Gemini partnership could help Apple narrow the gap as the race to embed large-language models in consumer devices accelerates.