Apple is «actively considering» revamping its Safari web browser on its devices to focus on artificial intelligence-powered search, a move that could spell the end of a long-standing partnership with Google, and is already weighing on both companies’ stocks.
Apple is «actively considering» revamping its Safari web browser on its devices to focus on artificial intelligence-powered search, a move that could spell the end of a long-standing partnership with Google, and is already weighing on both companies’ stocks.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, made the statement Wednesday during his testimony in the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit against Alphabet Inc., which examines a deal between the two companies worth $20 billion a year that makes Google the default search engine in Apple’s browser.
According to Bloomberg, Cue noted that last month, the number of searches in Safari fell for the first time, which he attributed to people using AI. The Apple vice president believes that AI search providers such as OpenAI, Perplexity A. and Anthropic will eventually replace traditional search engines such as Google, which is part of Alphabet. He said he believes Apple will add these capabilities to Safari in the future.
«We’ll add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default,» he said, noting that they still need improvement. Cue added that the company has had several discussions with Perplexity.
Since the release of Apple’s first smartphone in 2007, users have defaulted to navigating the web using Google search. So the potential shift towards AI-powered search is a huge change for Apple’s estimated 2 billion user base.
Investors saw the report as a bad sign for both Alphabet and Apple, which may have to walk away from a lucrative deal. Alphabet shares fell 7,3%, their biggest drop since February. Apple shares also fell after the vice president’s comments, and were down 1,1% at the close. Google said it had seen an increase in searches from Apple devices, according to its data.
Apple currently offers OpenAI’s ChatGPT as an option in its Siri digital assistant and is likely to add Google’s Gemini AI later this year. Cue said Apple was also considering Anthropic, Perplexity, Chinese company DeepSeek and Elon Musk’s xAI Grok for this purpose. He said the deal with OpenAI allows the company to add other AI vendors, including Apple’s own, to the operating system.
Reddit, the world’s largest forum, recently launched a new AI-powered search tool called Reddit Answers. Like other AI-powered search products, it responds to queries and generates neatly formatted answers and links to their sources. Reddit Answers is different in that it pulls information directly from Reddit and doesn’t rely on Google search.
