Tesla CEO and xAI founder Elon Musk has sharply criticised the newly announced multi-year partnership between Apple and Google, which integrates Google’s Gemini AI models to power the next-generation Siri and other Apple Intelligence features. In a post on X shortly after the announcement, Musk described the deal as an “unreasonable concentration of power” for Google.
“This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that they also have Android and Chrome,” Musk wrote, directly responding to an official Google announcement on X.
Details of the Apple-Google AI collaboration
Apple and Google revealed the partnership on January 12, 2026, stating that Google’s Gemini models will serve as the foundation for Apple’s future foundation models and enhance features like a more personalised Siri. The revamped Siri is expected to launch this spring, likely with iOS 26.4 in March or April. Apple emphasised that after a thorough evaluation, it determined Gemini provides “the most capable foundation” for its AI ambitions.
The deal runs on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure for enhanced privacy, and it marks a significant win for Google amid its competition with OpenAI. The announcement propelled Alphabet’s valuation to briefly touch $4 trillion, briefly surpassing Apple to become the world’s second-most valuable company.
Musk’s concerns for Google’s
Musk’s criticism comes amid his own stakes in the AI race through xAI, which develops the competing Grok AI model. He has previously filed antitrust-related lawsuits against Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of favouring ChatGPT on the App Store while blocking rivals. That case has survived dismissal attempts and is progressing.
Google already dominates mobile OS with Android and the browser market with Chrome, and the Apple deal extends its influence to iOS devices, which boast over two billion active users worldwide.
In recent weeks, Grok has faced significant controversy over its image generation and editing features (Grok Imagine), which users exploited to create nonconsensual sexualised deepfakes, including those of women and minors. This sparked widespread backlash, leading xAI to restrict these capabilities to paying subscribers only on January 9, 2026. Several countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia, have temporarily blocked access to Grok, while regulators in the UK, France, the EU, and others have launched investigations or demanded explanations over potential violations of laws on child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual imagery.
Amid the scrutiny, xAI announced a massive $20 billion Series E funding round on January 6, 2026 (upsized from an initial $15 billion target), accelerating development of advanced models like the upcoming Grok 5. The company also rolled out Grok Business and Enterprise plans with enhanced privacy and integrations. Despite the challenges, Grok continues to see strong user adoption, topping app charts in countries like Thailand and New Zealand, and earning praise for its performance in benchmarks for human preference, coding, emotional intelligence, and creative output.
Neither Apple nor Google has publicly responded to Musk’s remarks, and experts consider it unlikely they will address the concentration-of-power concerns directly. The partnership is seen as a practical move for Apple to accelerate its AI capabilities while Google gains deeper ecosystem reach.
