The Anthropic Deal That Didn’t Happen: How Apple Lost Its Preferred AI Partner

Apple’s preferred AI partner priced them out — a sign of how far behind Apple has fallen in the AI race.

The Two Players

Deal Failed

Anthropic’s Ask: Multi-Billion $

Annual fee, increasing sharply each year

Why Anthropic Had All the Leverage

1. Already Backed — Amazon + Google own ~40% of Anthropic already
2. Cash Rich — Didn’t need Apple’s money as much as Apple needed Claude
3. #1 Best Models — Apple’s own testing showed Claude was the best option available

The Power Dynamic

Apple needed Anthropic more than Anthropic needed Apple

The Outcome

What Apple Wanted

• ✓ Claude for Siri (best-in-class AI)
• ✓ Reasonable licensing terms
• ✓ Exclusive or preferred partnership
• ✓ Quick deal to catch up on AI

What Apple Got

• ✗ No Claude deal
• ✗ Priced out by multi-billion ask
• ✗ Forced to compromise with Google
• ✗ Further delays in Siri upgrade

The Fallback: Google Gemini

$1B/year — The compromise choice

This is part of a comprehensive analysis. Read the full analysis on The Business Engineer.