Apple selects Google’s Gemini to power Siri, CNBC reports
Apple has selected Google’s Gemini model as part of a multiyear partnership to power its revamped, AI-powered Siri, set to launch this year.
Per a statement seen by CNBC, Apple said: “After careful evaluation, we determined that Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we’re excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users.”
Apple first promised a revamped AI Siri back in June 2024 but failed to execute on many of its promises of personalized features and deep system integration. The newest iteration of Siri was expected this spring. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple plans to pay Google $1 billion a year to use its AI model to power Siri.
With this news, the iPhone maker has seemingly ticked one of the four boxes that Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said would be integral to the stock’s success in 2026.
Google, which has been riding high on the the stellar reception of its latest Gemini model, briefly notched a $4 trillion market cap on the news. Apple hit the notable milestone in 2025 but has since fallen and is currently worth $3.8 trillion.
Apple first promised a revamped AI Siri back in June 2024 but failed to execute on many of its promises of personalized features and deep system integration. The newest iteration of Siri was expected this spring. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple plans to pay Google $1 billion a year to use its AI model to power Siri.
With this news, the iPhone maker has seemingly ticked one of the four boxes that Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said would be integral to the stock’s success in 2026.
Google, which has been riding high on the the stellar reception of its latest Gemini model, briefly notched a $4 trillion market cap on the news. Apple hit the notable milestone in 2025 but has since fallen and is currently worth $3.8 trillion.
Apple’s App Store saw an average of 850 million weekly active users at the end of 2025, up from 813 million last June, underscoring the sheer scale of its Services business even as hardware growth has slowed. The company highlighted the milestone in a year-end Services roundup, noting record App Store traffic across major markets including the US, China, India, and Japan.
Apple takes a cut of most digital transactions that run through its App Store payment system, making growth there a key driver of its increasingly important Services segment.
Apple also indicated record Apple TV viewership and Apple Music listenership, but did not disclose specific figures.
Anthropic rolls out health features, following OpenAI
Healthcare is turning out to be a key battleground as AI companies race to roll out new features in their quest to lure new users to their platforms.
Last week, OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT Health, in response to the 40 million health-related queries per day that the chatbot answers. The consumer-focused feature lets users connect health apps and upload medical records securely for the chatbot to analyze and explain.
Today Anthropic unveiled Claude for Healthcare, which offers similar features while also serving healthcare providers. The company described the new product as a “set of tools and resources that allow health care providers, payers, and consumers to use Claude for medical purposes through HIPAA-ready products.”
The company said the feature can be used by healthcare providers to speed up prior authorization requests, build stronger claims appeals, and coordinate patient care.
Patients can connect to systems to access their medical records and lab results, share health data securely from health apps, and “detect patterns” from health metrics.
Anthropic also expanded its existing Claude for Life Sciences product, enabling new connections to additional scientific platforms to support clinical trial management and regulatory work.
Today Anthropic unveiled Claude for Healthcare, which offers similar features while also serving healthcare providers. The company described the new product as a “set of tools and resources that allow health care providers, payers, and consumers to use Claude for medical purposes through HIPAA-ready products.”
The company said the feature can be used by healthcare providers to speed up prior authorization requests, build stronger claims appeals, and coordinate patient care.
Patients can connect to systems to access their medical records and lab results, share health data securely from health apps, and “detect patterns” from health metrics.
Anthropic also expanded its existing Claude for Life Sciences product, enabling new connections to additional scientific platforms to support clinical trial management and regulatory work.
Meta appoints former Trump adviser Dina Powell McCormick as first-ever president and vice chairman
Meta announced Monday that Dina Powell McCormick, a longtime Goldman Sachs executive who served on Meta’s board for eight months before resigning in late 2025 and was the deputy national security adviser during the first Trump administration, has been appointed the company’s first-ever president and vice chairman.
President Trump congratulated McCormick on Truth Social, calling her appointment a “great choice by Mark Z!!!” and saying she’s a “fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction!”
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said her “experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth.” That role will include building capital partnerships to help fund Meta’s massive AI infrastructure investments. Powell is married to GOP Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick, a former executive at the hedge fund Bridgewater.
President Trump congratulated McCormick on Truth Social, calling her appointment a “great choice by Mark Z!!!” and saying she’s a “fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction!”
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said her “experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth.” That role will include building capital partnerships to help fund Meta’s massive AI infrastructure investments. Powell is married to GOP Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick, a former executive at the hedge fund Bridgewater.
Apple’s smartphone market share jumped to a world-leading 20% in 2025
Here’s what Dan Ives says the iPhone maker has to do to reach Wedbush’s $350 price target this year.
Report: Anthropic cuts off xAI’s access to its models for coding
Competition between the top AI companies is fierce. Top employees are being poached, and companies are training their AI on competitors’ models to stay ahead of the pack.
Anthropic is taking steps to make sure it’s not helping the competition in any way. According to tech reporter Kylie Robison, this week Anthropic cut access to xAI developers who were using its Claude models for coding via the popular Cursor AI coding tool.
Robison reports that xAI cofounder Tony Wu told his team in an email:
“This is a both bad and good news. We will get a hit on productivity, but it rly pushes us to develop our own coding product / models.”
Robison reports that xAI cofounder Tony Wu told his team in an email:
“This is a both bad and good news. We will get a hit on productivity, but it rly pushes us to develop our own coding product / models.”
xAI’s revenue is growing, but so are its staggering losses
Good news: xAI’s revenue nearly doubled to $107 million in the third quarter compared to the second.
Bad news: Its net losses grew to $1.46 billion in Q3, up from $1 billion in the first quarter, and more than 13x revenue, Bloomberg reports.
The company, which is currently worth north of $230 billion, is burning through staggering amounts of cash — nearly a billion dollars a month — in service of building data centers and developing what it calls “self-sufficient” AI that can one day power robots like Tesla’s Optimus. Meanwhile, its revenue still looks more like that of a midsize startup than a tech giant.
Despite receiving more yes than no votes, Tesla’s board didn’t approve a shareholder proposal to invest in xAI, leaving a more formal relationship between the companies unresolved, even as xAI continues to burn cash at a pace that will require steady access to outside capital.
Of course, Elon Musk’s AI company is already deeply financially intertwined with his EV company. In 2024, xAI spent nearly $200 million, largely on Tesla Megapack batteries — a figure that appears to have grown significantly in 2025.
The company, which is currently worth north of $230 billion, is burning through staggering amounts of cash — nearly a billion dollars a month — in service of building data centers and developing what it calls “self-sufficient” AI that can one day power robots like Tesla’s Optimus. Meanwhile, its revenue still looks more like that of a midsize startup than a tech giant.
Despite receiving more yes than no votes, Tesla’s board didn’t approve a shareholder proposal to invest in xAI, leaving a more formal relationship between the companies unresolved, even as xAI continues to burn cash at a pace that will require steady access to outside capital.
Of course, Elon Musk’s AI company is already deeply financially intertwined with his EV company. In 2024, xAI spent nearly $200 million, largely on Tesla Megapack batteries — a figure that appears to have grown significantly in 2025.
Apple’s hardware chief is the front-runner to be the next CEO
The New York Times is the latest news organization to cite Apple sources who think the company’s hardware chief, John Ternus, will be the one to fill CEO Tim Cook’s shoes. Citing people close to Apple, the publication reports that Cook is “tired and would like to reduce his workload” and that 50-year-old Ternus is the most likely to take his place, as the company accelerates its succession planning.
The Times is in good company. Both the Financial Times and Bloomberg have previously said Ternus is the top pick to succeed Cook at the helm of the tech giant, and Ternus is currently enjoying the top spot on prediction markets. His market-implied odds of being the next CEO are currently above 60% on both Polymarket and Kalshi event contracts.
The Times is in good company. Both the Financial Times and Bloomberg have previously said Ternus is the top pick to succeed Cook at the helm of the tech giant, and Ternus is currently enjoying the top spot on prediction markets. His market-implied odds of being the next CEO are currently above 60% on both Polymarket and Kalshi event contracts.
Morgan Stanley: Even with Nvidia’s autonomous tech, Tesla is still “years ahead” of other automakers
Nvidia’s latest autonomous tech may help traditional automakers close the distance to manufacturing driverless cars, but not to Tesla, a research note from Morgan Stanley contends. Analyst Andrew Percoco argued that while Nvidia’s tech stack offers a “capital efficient on ramp to advanced autonomy,” that still leaves automakers stuck in a “faster follower strategy.”
According to the analyst, “Tesla is years ahead of competitors when it comes to autonomy with a clear data and scale advantage.” The comment is similar to something Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in the wake of Nvidia’s announcements:
“This is maybe a competitive pressure on Tesla in 5 or 6 years, but probably longer,” Musk posted on X.
You’re right.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 6, 2026
The actual time from when FSD sort of works to where it is much safer than a human is several years.
The legacy car companies won’t design the cameras and AI computers into their cars at scale until several years after that.
So this is maybe a competitive…
AI leaderboard maker LMArena hits $1.7 billion valuation
If you want to know who’s up and who’s down in the AI model world, look no further than LMArena’s leaderboard. The startup has just raised a $150 million series A fundraising round, with a valuation of $1.7 billion.
In seven months, LMArena has raised $250 million, according to TechCrunch.
The leaderboard started as a research project by cofounders Anastasios Angelopoulos and Wei-Lin Chiang when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley.
The public leaderboard — formerly known as “Chatbot Arena” — shows the results of human evaluations of AI models for various tasks. Users can rate which model did a better job on one task in a sort of blind taste test.
The leaderboard is a hotly contested proving grounds for new models, and the company occupies a powerful position in an industry that lacks independent, industry-standard evaluations.
The leaderboard started as a research project by cofounders Anastasios Angelopoulos and Wei-Lin Chiang when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley.
The public leaderboard — formerly known as “Chatbot Arena” — shows the results of human evaluations of AI models for various tasks. Users can rate which model did a better job on one task in a sort of blind taste test.
The leaderboard is a hotly contested proving grounds for new models, and the company occupies a powerful position in an industry that lacks independent, industry-standard evaluations.
Uber jumps after unveiling Lucid robotaxi at CES
Uber shares jumped more than 5% after the company unveiled a production-intent robotaxi developed in partnership with Lucid and Nuro at the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday. The autonomous vehicle runs on Nvidia’s Drive AGX Thor computer. Nvidia itself announced a slate of autonomous hardware and software announcements at CES.
The companies said this fall that the San Francisco Bay Area will be the first market for the joint effort. The robotaxi is already being tested on public roads, with a commercial launch planned for later this year.
Uber + Lucid + Nvidia is just another example of the tangled web of partnerships in the autonomous driving space, where Nvidia is now becoming more and more prominent.
The companies said this fall that the San Francisco Bay Area will be the first market for the joint effort. The robotaxi is already being tested on public roads, with a commercial launch planned for later this year.
Uber + Lucid + Nvidia is just another example of the tangled web of partnerships in the autonomous driving space, where Nvidia is now becoming more and more prominent.
Meta delays international Ray-Ban Display expansion thanks to “unprecedented demand” and “extremely limited inventory”
Meta said today that it’s delaying the early 2026 international expansion of its Ray-Ban Display glasses because of “extremely limited inventory” and “unprecedented demand.” The company didn’t specify whether the issue was more supply or demand, but has previously insisted its smart glasses are a hit.
Waitlists for the smart glasses, which are controlled with a band you wear on your wrist, extend “well into 2026.”
“We’ll continue to focus on fulfilling orders in the US while we re-evaluate our approach to international availability,” the company wrote. Expansion had been planned for the UK, France, Italy, and Canada.
In order to buy the smart glasses, consumers must do an in-person product demo to ensure the tech is “properly fitted to you,” according to Meta. Demos in New York City are unavailable for the next few weeks, the company’s scheduling website shows. It also notes that “that due to high demand, the product may be sold out and unavailable for purchase after your demo.”
Nvidia’s autonomous tech gives other automakers a chance to take on Tesla
Nvidia made a number of autonomous vehicle announcements at CES yesterday that should have Tesla worried.
Report: Returns on Nvidia’s Omniverse business are underwhelming
Today in Las Vegas, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang will be taking the stage at the CES conference to show off his company’s latest innovations. If you’ve watched any of Huang’s impressive jargon-filled keynote speeches, you’ll notice that he gets extra animated when talking about “digital twins.”
Nvidia’s “Omniverse” platform allows companies to use Nvidia software and hardware to run large-scale simulations of factories and assembly lines.
The idea is that you can train your robots in Nvidia’s simulated environment, saving huge amounts of time and money. Huang is making a huge bet on this nascent product, and according to a new report, it isn’t exactly taking off.
The Information reports that much to Huang’s anger and frustration, the Omniverse offerings have yet to generate significant revenue.
According to the report, despite a long list of customers who Nvidia says are using Omniverse, some say the software is hard to use and fails to allow for simulating robot interactions with complex objects. The report also says Nvidia shuttered its Omniverse Cloud service in August of last year due to a lack of demand.
Nvidia has certainly successfully blazed trails into new categories before, but considering Huang’s enthusiasm for the Omniverse offerings, it is a rare stumble for the chip juggernaut.
The idea is that you can train your robots in Nvidia’s simulated environment, saving huge amounts of time and money. Huang is making a huge bet on this nascent product, and according to a new report, it isn’t exactly taking off.
The Information reports that much to Huang’s anger and frustration, the Omniverse offerings have yet to generate significant revenue.
According to the report, despite a long list of customers who Nvidia says are using Omniverse, some say the software is hard to use and fails to allow for simulating robot interactions with complex objects. The report also says Nvidia shuttered its Omniverse Cloud service in August of last year due to a lack of demand.
Nvidia has certainly successfully blazed trails into new categories before, but considering Huang’s enthusiasm for the Omniverse offerings, it is a rare stumble for the chip juggernaut.