Apple is turning to Google to enhance Siri and integrate more advanced artificial intelligence features into the iPhone, as the tech giant seeks to catch up in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Announced in a joint statement on Monday, the collaboration between these two Silicon Valley titans will allow Apple to utilize Google’s AI technology. This partnership will specifically leverage Google’s Gemini technology to introduce a suite of AI capabilities, collectively known as “Apple Intelligence,” to iPhones and other Apple devices.

Despite being a leader in tech innovation, Apple has lagged behind in the AI race, with Google and others having already taken the lead. Apple had previously pledged to make a significant impact with a series of new AI features set for release on the iPhone in 2024, as part of a highly anticipated software update.

However, many of Apple’s proposed AI advancements are still under development, whereas companies like Google and Samsung have already incorporated similar technologies into their products. One significant shortfall has been the anticipated transformation of Siri, which was expected to evolve into a more conversational and versatile assistant, yet remains a work in progress.

Google has not missed the opportunity to highlight Apple’s AI delays, subtly referencing the iPhone’s limitations in its advertising campaign for the latest Pixel phone launched last summer.

Apple’s AI missteps prompted the Cupertino, California, company to acknowledge last year that its Siri upgrade wouldn’t happen until some point during 2026.

Getting Apple to endorse its AI implicitly represents a coup for Google, which has been steadily releasing more features built on its Gemini technology in its search engine and Gmail. The progress has intensified Google’s competition with OpenAI and its ChatGPT chatbot, which already has a deal with Apple that makes it an option on the iPhone.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives hailed the Apple deal as a “major validation moment for Google,” in a Monday research note.

Google’s AI inroads have helped its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., become slightly more valuable than Apple in the assessment of investors. Alphabet marked a milestone Monday when it surpassed a market value of $4 trillion for the first time during early morning trading before slipping back below that threshold later in the session.

Even so, Alphabet’s market value remained about $150 billion above Apple, which for years ranked as the world’s most valuable company before the rise of AI changed the stakes.

Three other companies have joined the $4 trillion club in the past year, with AI chipmaker Nvidia becoming the first last July. Apple and Microsoft also broke the barrier last year, although the market values of those two longtime rivals are now below $4 trillion.

Nvidia’s market value briefly topped $5 trillion in late October, before backtracking amid recurring worries that the hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into AI technology may be creating an investment bubble that will eventually burst. With its chipsets designed for AI still in high demand, Nvidia remains atop the heap with a $4.5 trillion market value.

Alphabet’s stock price has been on a tear since early September when Google dodged the U.S. government’s attempt to break up its internet empire following a ruling last year that branded its ubiquitous search engine an illegal monopoly.

In an effort to prevent further abuses, a federal judge overseeing the case ordered a shake-up that investors widely interpreted as a relative slap on the wrist, resulting in a 36% increase in Alphabet’s stock price since then that has created an additional $1.4 trillion in shareholder wealth.

The ruling also left the door open for a long-running alliance in search between Google and Apple. Google pays Apple more than$20 billion annually to be the preferred search engine on the iPhone and other Apple products — an arrangement that is still allowed with a few modifications under the judge’s decision in the search case.