In the midst of the fallout of Alphabet’s ongoing antitrust court case, Apple is reportedly already exploring alternative search options.

Bloomberg’s noted Apple leaker, Mark Gruman, reported that the iPhone maker is “actively looking at” adding AI search to its Safari web browser.

This move of course could potentially dent Google’s domination of the lucrative search engine market.

Default search

It should be remembered that last August a US judge had ruled that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in the search and online advertising sectors, and the US DoJ is currently seeking a breakup of Google’s business, including a sell-off of its Chrome browser.

One of the issues that counted against Google in the antitrust case was that Alphabet pays Apple, Samsung, Mozilla and others billions of dollars in order to make Google the default search engine on their devices.

For example in November 2023 Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that Google paid Apple 36 percent of its search advertising revenue generated through the Safari browser.

This is estimated that Google pays Apple $20 billion annually.

This is in return for Google being in the coveted position of being the default search engine on Apple’s web browser.

Under pressure

Now in a move that could challenge Google’s dominance in the lucrative search market, Bloomberg has reported that Apple is exploring adding AI search to its Safari browser.

Losing that position could increase the pressure on Google as it faces fierce competition from the likes of OpenAI and Perplexity.

The report noted that Apple had already struck a deal with OpenAI to offer ChatGPT as an option in Siri, while Google is trying to secure an agreement to embed its Gemini AI technology in Apple’s latest devices.

Indeed, last week Sundar Pichai testified at the antitrust trial that Google hopes to enter an agreement with Apple by the middle of this year to include its Gemini AI technology on new iPhones.

Meanwhile Bloomberg also reported that Apple executive Eddy Cue had testified in the US DoJ’s antitrust case against Alphabet, saying searches on Safari fell for the first time last month, which he attributed to users increasingly turning to AI.