Reporting from the period pointed to a deal for the next generation of Apple's assistant to run on a bespoke model of roughly 1.2 trillion parameters developed by Google, due with the next OS release.
The arrangement combines rivalry and dependency: two companies competing in nearly every market, agreeing supply at the most visible layer of each other's products.
Apple's stated AI strategy leans on on-device processing, private cloud and external partnership rather than a massive infrastructure build. Contracting a model instead of training one is consistent with that, and avoids the billion-dollar capex line competitors took on.
The risk is the familiar one of supplier dependency, sharpened by the supplier being a direct competitor: a change in price, availability or priority hits a product that is a signature of the brand.
For the market, it's further evidence that models became an input, and that the contest shifts to whoever owns the relationship with the end user.