Apple Eyes Paywall for Siri AI Compute via iCloud+
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- Tim Cook said on Thursday's earnings call — his last as Apple CEO — that the company envisions letting users 'buy up the stack' on iCloud+ to access more Siri AI compute, though he stressed the plans are 'not set in stone'
- Apple has made the upgraded Siri AI available in the iOS 27 beta, with broader availability planned this fall
- Apple licensed a custom Gemini model from Google to augment Siri after falling behind on its own AI assistant, and paid $250 million to settle a class action lawsuit over how it marketed iPhone 16 AI capabilities
- John Ternus, Apple's longtime SVP of Hardware Engineering, will take over from Cook as CEO during the Siri AI push
- Apple raised prices on Macs and iPads last month amid an AI-driven RAM shortage industry-wide, but has yet to adjust iPhone pricing
- Cook framed the tiered approach as mirroring how OpenAI and Anthropic operate — offering limited free tiers with paid upgrades for heavier usage
Why it matters: For Apple, making its flagship AI assistant partially paywalled would mark a departure from the company's tradition of bundling features into its hardware price — pushing power users toward higher iCloud+ tiers. With Cook departing and Ternus inheriting a delayed, lawsuit-shadowed Siri rollout that relies on a competitor's Gemini model, the company is signaling it will treat AI compute like its cloud-storage peers do.
