What Apple’s AI deal with Google means for the two tech giants, and for $500 billion ‘upstart’ OpenAI

Apple and Google’s surprise AI partnership announcement on Monday sent shockwaves across the tech industry (and lifted Google’s market cap above $4 trillion). The two tech giants’ deal to infuse Google’s AI technology into Apple’s mobile software, including in an updated version of the Siri digital assistant, has major implications in the high-stakes battle to dominate AI and to own the platform that will define the next generation of computing.

While there are still many unanswered questions about the partnership, including the financial component and the duration of the deal, some key takeaways are already clear. Here’s why the deal is good news for Google, so-so news for Apple, and bad news for OpenAI.

The deal is further validation that Google has got its AI mojo back

When OpenAI debuted ChatGPT in November 2022, and throughout a good part of the next two years, many industry observers had their doubts about Google’s prospects in the changing landscape. The search giant at times appeared to be floundering as it raced to field models that could be as capable as OpenAI’ s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Google endured sev...