Technologies

Meta’s AI Push Leads to $10 Billion Google Cloud Deal, Report Says

According to Bloomberg, Meta will pay at least $10 billion over six years to use Google Cloud servers and storage to expand its AI capabilities.

Eager to establish dominance in artificial intelligence, Meta has signed up to use cloud-computing services from Google Cloud in a deal worth at least $10 billion over six years, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The deal would expand Meta’s capabilities as it continues to push into AI tools and services across its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. AI requires an enormous amount of computing resources, which requires more data center bandwidth. In turn, those data centers need an increasing amount of electricity and water to run and cool the hardware inside.

Meta is also spending big to build its own AI data centers, including a 4-million-square-foot facility in Louisiana, called Hyperion, which it plans to open by 2030.

Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the report. Google declined to comment.

Meta’s big AI push

In recent months, Meta has been on a hiring spree to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to hire a superstar team to work on its AI projects, including its Llama AI platform. Recently, though, reports suggest that AI-related hiring may be paused as the company reevaluates its artificial intelligence strategy.

Meta continues to roll out new AI tools and features regardless, including AI translations for Facebook and Instagram.

Meanwhile, a deal with Meta could give Google Cloud a boost as what Bloomberg describes as a «one-stop shop» for AI services. In June, OpenAI joined forces with Google Cloud to use its data centers.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Aug. 23

Technologies

With Apple’s Siri AI Overhaul Delayed, Google Might Help It Catch Up

Siri’s long-delayed overhaul could end up powered by Google’s Gemini AI, a move that shows how urgently Apple is trying to close the gap with rivals.

Apple is reportedly weighing up a potentially major change to its digital assistant: powering a revamped Siri with Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence tool.

According to Bloomberg, the companies are in early discussions about a partnership that could reshape Apple’s AI strategy for the iPhone, iPad and Apple’s other products. While no agreement is in place, the talks signal Apple’s growing urgency to keep up in the generative AI race.

Siri, once a pioneer, has lagged behind its voice assistant rivals. Apple had planned to roll out a smarter, AI-driven Siri in 2025 as part of its Apple Intelligence initiative, but executives delayed the launch until spring 2026, admitting the early version wasn’t reliable enough to ship. That setback has left Apple at a disadvantage while Samsung, Microsoft and Amazon push ahead with AI assistants that are more conversational and capable.

Apple has long prided itself on controlling the technologies that make its products distinct, but generative AI has proven harder to master internally. To bridge the gap, Apple has leaned on partners: today’s Siri can already route certain requests to OpenAI’s ChatGPT when its own models fall short, and later this year, Apple Intelligence is set to upgrade that integration with GPT-5. You’ll be able to call on ChatGPT for writing help, image understanding and complex questions directly through Siri, Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence.

That reliance underscores the fact that Apple’s own models aren’t yet competitive at the same scale as its rivals.

Apple is reportedly exploring additional options, including Anthropic’s Claude and, most prominently, Google’s Gemini. A deal with Google wouldn’t just inject advanced capabilities into Siri, it would echo a long-running partnership between the two companies. Google already pays billions annually to remain the default search engine on Safari, and a Gemini deal could extend that relationship into Apple’s core AI experience.

If the talks advance, we may see a very different Siri emerge in the coming years: one less constrained, more conversational and powered by the same AI that underpins Google’s own products.

Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)