Google’s Samsung AI Advantage
Can anyone catch up with Google in the AI race? That question came to mind on Monday, after Reuters quoted Samsung’s co-CEO talking about his plans to double the number of mobile devices running Galaxy AI, Samsung’s branded AI features backed by Google’s Gemini AI technology, to 800 million this year. (That’s separate to Samsung phones that have the Gemini consumer chatbot preinstalled.) And the two companies are not just collaborating on phones: Samsung plans to unveil Gemini-powered AI features for kitchen appliances at CES this week. They’re also working together on smart glasses featuring Gemini. Beyond Samsung, Google is also installing Gemini on TV sets running its Google TV software—it’s previewing some new features at CES this week.
But phones are key. This is where Google may soon have an unbeatable lead. Samsung has the top share of the global smartphone market, although some analysts have predicted Apple will take that spot once the final numbers for 2025 are tabulated. That tussle doesn’t matter much to Google, as it is expected to negotiate a deal to help power Apple’s Siri assistant on iPhones. You might say Google’s AI has locked up the mobile market, at least for the moment. Whether it proves permanent is hard to say, as Google’s arrangement with Samsung is likely for a few years only and it hasn’t yet finalized a deal with Apple.
Even with that qualification, this is a good reminder of why OpenAI is so keen to launch some kind of AI device, and why Meta is putting so much effort into AI for its smart glasses. Both companies are hoping to supplant phones. They might succeed, but don’t bet on it. In the meantime, Google’s Gemini models will be powering AI features on many different outlets. That should mean Google is able to improve how the models function on a variety of tasks, simply because of the data it gets from interacting with so many consumers. And that could make Google’s models even more attractive to potential business partners.
What about money? Google is presumably charging Samsung for use of its models, although Google may have been keen enough for the business to discount its fee. Indeed, one of the revelations in an antitrust court hearing last year is that Google paid “enormous” amounts of money to have the Gemini consumer chatbot preinstalled on Samsung and other phones running Google’s Android software. But even without the chatbot, Google features like Gemini Live (through which you can talk to Gemini about what you see on your phone screen) will be available via Galaxy AI, according to this Samsung description of the technology. That’s valuable for raising consumer awareness of Gemini and potentially giving Google a bigger audience to sell ads to. OpenAI’s ChatGPT may be the only AI the average person knows about right now, but Google’s AI is looking to become increasingly ubiquitous.
Wall Street Ignores Jensen
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was on fire in his appearance at CES on Monday afternoon. Wearing a shiny leather jacket that appeared to be made of crocodile leather, he spoke off the cuff about developments in AI before segueing into a series of product and software announcements, culminating with details of Nvidia’s latest AI chip, Rubin, and related hardware.
Wall Street, though, wasn’t impressed. Huang began his address after the close of regular trading, when Nvidia stock dipped fractionally. But in after-market trading, Nvidia stock barely moved. And when it did, it fell by a few pennies.