Ads coming to Google’s Gemini AI

Deal with Apple expected in months as Google looks to monetize Gemini AI

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai gives evidence at antitrust hearing in Washington.

Google is planning to trial adverts on its Gemini AI, as it looks to finalise a deal with rival Apple to bundle Gemini with Apple Intelligence, Apple’s own suite of AI features for iPhones, iPads and Macs.

That’s according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, giving evidence at the company’s antitrust trial on Wednesday over multi-billion dollar deals with Apple and others making Google the default search service on their devices. Last year, the court ruled against Google, describing it as a monopolist.

Google had argued that the antitrust case was “backwards looking” and that people used Google for search because they want to, not because they are unfairly locked in. That argument was rejected. Pichai is now warning that the Department of Justice’s proposed remedies could kill Google search and compromise user privacy.

These proposed remedies include the forced sale of the Chrome web browser, a ban on payments to third parties making Google the default search engine, and a requirement for it to share search data with rivals. A number of potential suitors, including Yahoo and OpenAI, have expressed an interest in acquiring Chrome.

Pichai has described the plans as “far reaching” and claimed that they would enable rivals to “completely reverse engineer, end to end, any part of our technology stack”. He continued: “All of the years of research and development, and all the years we have put into the product, it feels like a full divestiture."

According to Reuters, reporting from the trial in Washington DC, prosecutors this week are trying to demonstrate how Google is looking to leverage its de facto monopoly in online search to dominate the market for online AI services, shutting out potential rivals with advantageous deals with companies like Apple and Samsung.

Last week, the company admitted making large payments to Samsung in the form of both fixed monthly payments, as well as a commission, in order to carry Gemini AI on its devices. The precise sums involved were not disclosed. Apple, meanwhile, is struggling to provide relevant AI services to its Siri chatbot.

Under questioning, Pichai admitted that no agreement has been concluded with Apple yet but added that he had talked to CEO Tim Cook about a deal late last year and believed that it could be concluded by the middle of this year.

Regardless of the final result, Google plans to appeal once a final ruling is delivered.

The news that Google is also planning to extend advertising to Gemini comes as it is also looking to embed the AI service in smartwatches, tablet computers and even vehicles.

Google is looking to advertising to make money out of Gemini because AI services are computationally intensive, expensive and, therefore, heavily loss-making at the moment – even with expensive monthly subscriptions. For example, OpenAI admits that it loses money even on its $200/month plan.

That comes as user numbers increase from just nine million early last year to 350 million monthly users as of March 2025. Gemini AI was widely derided when it was first released in 2023 under the Bard brand name, with Pichai criticised by staff for releasing a product they described as “rushed, botched, and un-Googley”.

The company has released progressively improved versions after relaunching it under the Gemini AI brand name. However, it remains well behind both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Facebook’s Meta AI in terms of users.