Google paid Samsung ‘enormous sums’ for Gemini AI app installs

[WASHINGTON] Alphabet pays Samsung Electronics an “enormous sum of money” every month to preinstall Google generative artificial intelligence (AI) app, Gemini, on its phones and devices, according to court testimony, even though the company’s practice of paying for installations has twice been found to violate the law.

The company began paying Samsung for Gemini in January, according to Peter Fitzgerald, Google’s vice-president of platforms and device partnerships, who testified on Monday (Apr 21) in Washington federal court as part of the Justice Department’s (DOJ) antitrust case.

The contract, set to run at least two years, provides fixed monthly payments for each device that preinstalls Gemini and pays Samsung a percentage of the revenue Google earns from advertisements within the app, Fitzgerald told judge Amit Mehta, who is overseeing the case.

Mehta found last year that Google’s practice of paying Samsung to be the default search engine on its devices violated antitrust law. He is currently hearing testimony to decide what changes to force Google to make to its business to remedy the illegal behaviour.

The amount of money that Google pays to Samsung was not revealed in court. During opening statements, DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist said the search giant pays Samsung “enormous sum of money in a fixed monthly payment”.

Between 2020 and 2023, Google paid US$8 billion to make Google Search, the Play Store, and Google Assistant the default on Samsung’s mobile devices, according to testimony in a separate case over the company’s monopolisation of the Android ecosystem.

The federal jury hearing that case found in 2023 that Google abused its power in the Android app market with its Google Play store policies. A California federal judge later ruled that the company must lift restrictions that prevent developers from setting up rival marketplaces and billing systems. Google is appealing. BLOOMBERG