Apple‘s (Nasdaq: AAPL) senior services executive testified on Wednesday that the company is considering multiple AI-powered alternatives for Safari web searches, potentially threatening the multibillion-dollar arrangement that has long made Google the browser’s default search provider.
Eddy Cue, speaking during a federal antitrust trial against Google parent Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), told the court that artificial intelligence companies are gaining ground in web search and would likely be incorporated into Safari’s options.
“We will add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default,” Cue said, according to Bloomberg News reporting on the testimony.
The arrangement that places Google as Safari’s primary search engine generates approximately $20 billion annually for Apple, and represents about 36% of Google’s search advertising revenue through the browser, industry analysts estimate.
Cue reported that Safari searches decreased for the first time last month, attributing this shift to consumers increasingly using AI tools. He identified OpenAI, Perplexity AI, and Anthropic as potential search options Apple intends to integrate into Safari.
Apple currently features OpenAI’s ChatGPT within its Siri assistant and plans to add Google’s Gemini AI later in 2025. Cue said Apple has also evaluated AI tools from Anthropic, China-based DeepSeek, and Elon Musk’s Grok.
“Prior to AI, my feeling around this was, none of the others were valid choices,” Cue stated. “I think today there is much greater potential because there are new entrants attacking the problem in a different way.”
Analyst Gil Luna of D.A. Davidson noted that Google losing its exclusive position on Apple products could significantly impact the search company’s business model.
Apple plans to showcase improvements to its AI platform at its annual developer conference beginning June 9, according to Cue’s testimony.
Despite discussing AI alternatives, Cue acknowledged that Google should remain Safari’s default search engine and expressed concern about potentially losing revenue from the longstanding partnership.
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