apple

#Google parent company Alphabet has become the fourth Big Tech group to hit a $4tn market value, fuelled by investor optimism that its #AI models can compete with rivals such as OpenAI.

Alphabet shares closed 1 per cent higher in New York on Monday, after jumping earlier in the day following news of a deal with #Apple that will entail Google’s GeminiAI models powering a revamped version of Siri, the iPhone’s virtual assistant.

The move capped a more than 6 per cent rise in the past month and carried the company over a threshold already surpassed by Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple.

At the start of last year, Alphabet’s shares had been lagging behind the broader AI-driven rally in Big Tech stocks, amid fears its cash-cow search engine would be overshadowed by new apps such as #chatgpt and Perplexity.

Investors were also concerned US regulators were seeking to break up the Silicon Valley-based company.

But the shares have more than doubled since April, as Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind, Google’s AI arm, led the group’s effort to make inroads on ChatGPT.

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Google’s parent company Alphabet has become the fourth Big Tech group to hit a $4tn market value, fuelled by investor optimism that its AI models can compete with rivals such as OpenAI.

Alphabet shares closed 1 per cent higher in New York on Monday, after jumping earlier in the day following news of a deal with Apple that will entail Google’s Gemini AI models powering a revamped version of Siri, the iPhone’s virtual assistant.

The move capped a more than 6 per cent rise in the past month and carried the company over a threshold already surpassed by Nvidia, #Microsoft and Apple.

At the start of last year, Alphabet’s shares had been lagging behind the broader AI-driven rally in Big Tech stocks, amid fears its cash-cow search engine would be overshadowed by new apps such as ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Investors were also concerned US regulators were seeking to break up the Silicon Valley-based company.

But the shares have more than doubled since April, as Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind, Google’s AI arm, led the group’s effort to make inroads on ChatGPT.

Google and Apple on Monday said the two companies had “entered into a multiyear collaboration”. Google’s Gemini models and cloud services will “help power future Apple Intelligence features”, including a long-delayed update to Siri that is expected to be released this year.

“After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users,” the two companies said.

CNBC first reported the deal. Apple had previously worked with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT into its Siri assistant, underscoring how Google’s rival has staged a comeback against the start-up.

The latest partnership between the two is not exclusive, as the iPhone maker will continue to partner with OpenAI to use its models.

Apple experienced a faltering rollout of its suite of AI features, which it dubbed “Apple Intelligence” after its launch in June 2024. Those features included integrating ChatGPT into search and writing assistant functions on newer models of the iPhone.

But a widely anticipated AI makeover for Siri was delayed and high-profile departures from its in-house AI team last year compounded investor concerns that the company was falling behind.

In December, former Microsoft executive Amar Subramanya replaced Apple’s longtime AI chief John Giannandrea.

In the meantime, the competition to offer the most advanced AI models has heated up. Last month, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman declared a “code red” over the need to improve its products, after Google released its Gemini 3 model, which is considered to have leapfrogged rivals on industry benchmarks.

At the time, Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google’s AI architect and DeepMind’s chief technology officer, said the Big Tech group had “pushed our performance quite significantly” by training its AI models using Google’s own bespoke chips. The company also said it was integrating its latest AI models into products immediately.

Alphabet shares have also been propelled since it showed investors its advertising revenues were growing strongly despite the threat from chatbot rivals.

The company’s quarterly revenues grew 16 per cent in the third quarter to surpass $100bn for the first time, it said in October, boosted by its booming cloud computing business and YouTube ads. Its Gemini app has grown rapidly to 650mn monthly users.

Investors have also become more bullish on Google’s prospects after US courts signalled they were unwilling to break up the Big Tech group.

Last year, a US federal judge said the Department of Justice’s request for Alphabet to spin off elements of its advertising business would not be “easily enforceable”, despite a court in April finding the company had an illegal monopoly in digital ads.

In a separate DoJ case over Google search, the company was spared from a court order that could have prohibited it from making payments to Apple to distribute its products to its more than 2bn global users. Apple and Google have long maintained a deal under which Google is the default search engine on Apple’s browser.

各位戰友晚上好，我是研幣大叔。
這份研報，我們不談地緣政治的火藥味，改談科技圈一場足以載入史冊的「世紀聯姻」。就在 2026 年 1 月 12 日，蘋果與 Google 正式官宣了合作。這場 AI 戰略的重大轉向，不僅讓 Google 的市值衝破 4 兆美元大關，也讓我們看到在 AI 霸權爭奪戰中，強者是如何透過「生態系併吞」來鞏固領地的。對於投資者來說，這不僅是兩家公司的變動，更是整個 2026 年 AI 投資邏輯的典範轉移。
一、 Siri 的大腦置換：Gemini 1.2 兆參數的入主
這項合作最核心的變動在於 Siri 的底層邏輯。過去，Siri 與 ChatGPT 的合作更像是一種「任務外包」，當 Siri 答不出來時才詢問用戶是否轉接；而 2026 年 3 月即將隨著 iOS 26.4 登場的新版 Siri，則是將 Google Gemini 1.2 兆參數的定制化模型，直接植入其底層架構。
這套架構實現了精準的分工：日常的隱私任務（如行事曆讀取、簡訊回覆）仍由 iPhone 內部的 Apple Silicon 本地處理；而一旦涉及內容摘要、複雜行程規劃、甚至是跨 App 的深度協作，系統會自動調用雲端的 Gemini 模型。這種「端雲結合」的深度，標誌著 Google 已經實質掌控了 iPhone 這座全球最龐大的終端入口。
二、 為什麼是 Google？規模化與成本的最終決算
在蘋果內部的 AI 選秀（Bake-off）中，OpenAI 與 Anthropic 最終落敗，這背後反映了 2026 年 AI 產業的殘酷現實：基礎設施才是真理。
* 基礎設施的穩定性（Scalability）： 要同時支撐全球 20 億台活躍裝置的瞬間併發請求，Google 遍布全球的數據中心與自研的 Ironwood 系列 TPU 晶片，展現了無可匹敵的可靠度。這是目前仍依賴租借算力的 OpenAI 難以企及的硬傷。
* 財務槓桿： Google 憑藉與蘋果長年的搜尋引擎合作默契，提供了極具競爭力的條款（傳言授權費約為每年 10 億美元）。對 Google 來說，這不僅是授權費，更是防止 AI 時代的流量被 OpenAI 徹底截斷的「防守稅」。
三、 私有雲運算（PCC）：蘋果的隱私遮羞布
蘋果為了維持其隱私護城河，強烈要求 Gemini 模型必須運行在蘋果自建的「私有雲運算」（Private Cloud Compute）伺服器上。
這是一種物理級別的隔離：Google 僅提供算法技術，但無法存取處理過程中的用戶個資或 Siri 指令紀錄。對於蘋果而言，這是最高明的做法——使用了競爭對手的最強大腦，卻把所有的數據黃金留在自己的金庫裡。然而，這種做法也引發了馬斯克（Elon Musk）的炮轟，認為這種兩大巨頭的綑綁，終將導致 AI 權力的過度集中，形成壟斷噩夢。
四、 OpenAI 的邊緣化與 Google 的外交大勝
這項合作對 OpenAI 的打擊是致命的。雖然 Siri 仍保留 ChatGPT 作為百科問答的備選插件，但其戰略地位已從「首選伴侶」降級為「備選配角」。數據顯示，ChatGPT 在 2026 年初的市佔率已從巔峰的 87% 跌至 68%。
Google 則成功完成了外交超車，成功防止了 OpenAI 佔領 iPhone 終端，鞏固了其在行動 AI 時代的霸主地位。這也預示著 2026 年的 AI 競爭已從單純的「模型參數之爭」，演變為「模型 + 終端通路 + 運算成本」的綜合生態戰爭。
五、 投資邏輯的轉移：從單點爆發到基建主權
這場聯姻告訴我們，AI 的靈魂固然重要，但承載靈魂的容器（硬體終端）與輸送靈魂的管道（雲端基建）擁有更高的話語權。這與我們最近討論的地緣政治危機（如伊朗與委內瑞拉）有著驚人的相似性：誰掌握了流量與結算的底層，誰就是實質的主權者。
在這種巨頭壟斷 AI 權力的背景下，市場對於「抗壟斷」且「透明合規」的數位基建需求將會持續攀升。
我們正觀察到，像 @Dusk 這樣專注於受監管資產（RWA）代幣化的底層協議，其核心的技術邏輯正是強調在「大數據時代」如何守住最後的隱私與合規底線。當 Apple 與 Google 透過 PCC 技術實現數據隔離時，$DUSK 則是在金融結算領域，透過 ZKP（零知識證明） 與 Citadel 數位身份，為機構提供了一套不依賴巨頭意志的權屬證明體系。在 2026 年這個 AI 與金融高度整合的時代，這種對「基建主權」的佈局，將會是我們在追逐 Apple 與 Google 漲幅之餘，最重要的長線防禦措施。
2026 年 1 月 12 日這一天，蘋果把 Siri 的靈魂交給了 Google，而 Google 把 4 兆美元的市值留給了歷史。這場 AI 戰略大遷徙，不僅決定了我們手中 iPhone 的智慧程度，也決定了未來十年全球科技權力的流向。

$DUSK
#Apple #Google #dusk