OpenAI reportedly walked away from Apple to focus on building its own AI hardware instead

Update from January 15, 2026:

Someone close to OpenAI told the Financial Times that the company made "a conscious decision to not become the custom model provider for Apple" last fall. OpenAI is instead focusing on building its own AI devices to compete with the major tech companies. It's also possible that Apple saw whatever OpenAI is building with former Apple designer Jony Ive as a threat—and figured Google's Pixel line isn't much of a competitive concern anyway.

Apple says the Google deal won't affect the existing ChatGPT integration. That's a tough sell if the cloud computing contract with Google is really worth several billion dollars, as the Financial Times and Bloomberg have reported.

Original article from January 14, 2026:

New Apple-Google deal pushes ChatGPT to the sidelines on iPhone

Apple's expanded partnership with Google relegates ChatGPT to a backup option on iPhone.

An Apple spokesperson told The Information that deeper Gemini integration would not affect the company's agreement with OpenAI to use ChatGPT for more complex requests.

For OpenAI, though, the Gemini-Siri integration marks the end of a failed partnership. CEO Sam Altman and his team originally hoped the Apple deal would bring in billions in additional revenue and break Google's dominance on Apple devices.

That didn't happen. According to a source speaking to The Information, the partnership brought OpenAI almost no additional traffic. Now Google's model handles everyday user interactions, while ChatGPT serves only as an optional fallback.