According to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai’s testimony during an antitrust trial on Wednesday, Google intends  to seal a historic agreement with Apple for Gemini AI integration in iPhones by the middle of 2025. The integration could significantly increase the reach of Google AI, as the firm is presently battling in court to maintain its dominance in search.

Gemini Integration in the Apple Orbit

When questioned by the Attorney Veronica Onyema from the Justice Department, Pichai acknowledged that talks are going with the Apple CEO Tim Cook. No deal has been signed yet but a successful agreement would get Google’s Gemini AI to be embedded into Apple Intelligence, his own branded AI tool suite of Apple. This partnership could well signal the strategic joining of two of the technology giants unless of course some antitrust scrutiny looms in the way between.

The timing for potential integration is being targeted for later this year. The CEO disclosed that Google is working on the monetization of Gemini using advertising within the application, the traditional revenue generator of the company.

Tensions Rise over the Trial

Pichai’s testimony is a defense strategy in an unprecedented antitrust case against Google, filed by the U.S Department of Justice and a number of state attorneys general. The plaintiffs contend that Google’s multibillion-dollar agreements with device manufacturers, Apple, Samsung, and U.S carriers, entrench its default opportunity in search and kill off competition.

A ruling against Google may force a court’s hand to cancel some of these agreements or even go so far as to split off Chrome or open search data to competitors. Judge Amit Mehta, who had previously ruled that a part of Google’s power in the online search market was kept by way of exclusive agreements, is now taking submissions on the remedies that can be molded to restore competition.

Pichai Harshly Refuses

Pichai firmly objected to the proposals seeking Google’s sharing of its search index and query data with competitors, saying that it is really “extraordinarily” outreaching, as it amounts to a “defacto divestiture of our IP related to search” of Google’s intellectual property. Pichai warned,

“It would be trivial to reverse engineer and effectively build Google search from the outside. That would make it unviable to invest in R&D the way we have for the past two decades.”

While regulators move towards taking down Google’s monopoly, the company is silently pushing itself into new areas that could make it all more ingrained, this time in the AI race. Pichai’s testimony suggested loss of innovation if Google’s data were to become communal property, perhaps the greater picture is how much AI could shake up industry loyalties. If it ends up being baked into iPhones, Gemini will not just be a technological win, it will be a strategic achievement as well.