Google pays Samsung huge amounts of money to pre-install Gemini, court finds
Google has paid an undisclosed amount to Samsung to pre-install its AI chatbot, Gemini, on its smartphones, as well as advertising revenue, according to a new antitrust lawsuit filed by the company.
Google Trial: Company Paid Samsung 'Enormous Sums' for Gemini AI App Installs - Bloomberg
Google is paying Samsung an 'enormous sum' to preinstall Gemini | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/652746/google-samsung-gemini-default-placement-antitrust-trial
It was revealed in 2020 that Google was making huge payments to Samsung to give its AI an advantage in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Google for antitrust violations. In this lawsuit, which revealed that Google had paid $8 billion (approximately 1.2 trillion yen at the time) to Samsung to make its search engine and voice assistant the default, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbiaruled that Google was guilty of antitrust violations.
Epic Games points out that Google paid Samsung 1.2 trillion yen over four years to make Google Play the default - GIGAZINE
Peter Fitzgerald, Google's vice president of platform and device partnerships, was called as a witness in the trial to hear the details of the sanctions against Google.
And at a court hearing on April 22, 2025, Fitzgerald testified that Google's parent company, Alphabet, was paying Samsung monthly money in exchange for pre-installing Gemini on its phones.
According to the testimony, the Gemini contract with Samsung is for two years and includes a fixed monthly payment as well as a share of advertising revenue from the Gemini app to Samsung.
Fitzgerald's testimony revealed that in the Galaxy S25 series announced by Samsung in January 2025, the default AI assistant that is activated by pressing and holding the power button has been changed from Samsung's AI assistant Bixby to Gemini, and that monthly payments to Samsung began exactly in January 2025.
The specific amount of Google's payments to Samsung is unclear, but Department of Justice attorney David Dahlquist said in opening statements that the monthly payments were 'enormous.'
While revealing that Gemini had signed a contract to favor Samsung devices, Fitzgerald pointed out that Samsung had received 'competitive proposals' from AI companies such as Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI to incorporate AI apps, and said that Google's proposal to Samsung was 'taking into account what our competitors were offering.' He emphasized that the contract was competitive.
Fitzgerald also testified during cross-examination that Samsung could provide other generative AI services, and that the April 2025 contract amendment removed the requirement that Google's search engine and AI assistant be pre-installed.
The lawsuit also includes Google's ability to correct its anti-competitive practices, and it has been reported that OpenAI plans to put itself forward as a potential buyer if Google is ordered to sell Chrome.
OpenAI intends to buy Chrome from Google, but has previously asked Google to provide search technology but was turned down - GIGAZINE
Related Posts:
