Google's Massive Payments to Samsung for Gemini AI Integration Raise Antitrust Concerns

Google is paying Samsung an 'enormous sum' to preinstall Gemini

Wes Davis is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020. Testimony this week from Google's antitrust trial shows that Google gives Samsung an "enormous sum of money" each month to preinstall the Gemini AI app on Samsung devices, reports Bloomberg. Now that Judge Amit Mehta has ruled Google's search engine is an illegal monopoly, its lawyers are sparring with the DOJ over how severe a potential penalty should be. Peter Fitzgerald, Google's vice president of platforms and device partnerships, testified on Monday that Google's payments to Samsung started in January. That's after Google was found to have violated antitrust law, partially due to similar arrangements with Apple, Samsung, and other companies for search. When Samsung launched the Galaxy S25 series in January, it also added Gemini as the default AI assistant when long-pressing the power button, with its own Bixby assistant taking a back seat. The Information reports that today Fitzgerald testified that other companies had pitched Samsung on deals to preinstall their AI assistant apps, including Perplexity and Microsoft. But a DOJ lawyer pointed out that Google's letters attempting to amend its deal with phone makers, which the company presented at the hearing, were only sent last week, just ahead of the trial. Also, internal slides presented today apparently showed that Google "was considering more restrictive distribution agreements that would have required partners to preinstall Gemini alongside Search and Chrome," The Information writes. According to Bloomberg, Fitzgerald said the Gemini deal is a two-year agreement that, along with fixed monthly payments, sees Google giving Samsung a percentage of its ad revenue from the Gemini app. Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyer David Dahlquist called the fixed monthly payment an "enormous sum," Bloomberg says. Exactly how enormous isn't known. If the DOJ has its way, the results of these hearings could mean Google is forbidden from striking default placement deals in the future, would sell Chrome, and would be forced to license the vast majority of the data that powers Google Search. Google has argued that it should only have to give up the default placement deals.

Google Paid Samsung 'Enormous Sums' for Gemini AI App Installs

Alphabet Inc. pays Samsung Electronics Co. an "enormous sum of money" every month to preinstall Google generative 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 Monday in Washington federal court as part of the Justice Department's 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.

Google pays Samsung an 'enormous' amount of money to pre-install Gemini on phones

This came out as part of an antitrust case against the search giant. Google has been paying Samsung tons of cash every month to pre-install the AI app Gemini on its smartphones, This information comes to us as part of a pre-existing antitrust case against Google. Peter Fitzgerald, Google's VP of platforms and device partnerships, testified in federal court that it began paying Samsung for this service back in January. The pair of companies have a contract that's set to run at least two years. Fitzgerald told Judge Amit Metha, who is overseeing the case, that Google provides Samsung with both fixed monthly payments and a percentage of revenue earned from advertisers within the Gemini app. The monetary figures are unknown, but DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist called it an "enormous sum of money in a fixed monthly payment." This antitrust case started with an accusation that Google had been over the search engine industry. Part of the testimony surrounding that case involved Google paying to ensure it was the default search engine on its devices. Judge Mehta agreed and found that this practice . He's currently hearing additional testimony to decide what measures Google must take to remedy the illegal behavior, which is where this Gemini reveal comes from. Testimony from another case involving Epic Games indicated that Google from to ensure that Google Search, the Play Store and Google Assistant were used by default on Samsung mobile devices. A California federal judge later ruled that the company that prevent rival marketplaces and billing systems. Google is in the process of appealing that ruling. As an aside, if Google is hellbent on handing out Scrooge McDuck-sized bags of money to increase adoption rates of its generative AI app, why not give the regular people who have to actually use the bloatware some of that cash? Just saying.

Google uses its deep pockets to secure Gemini a spot on Samsung devices

Google has an illegal grip on online advertising tech, court finds Summary Court testimony in the US Department of Justice antitrust trial revealed Google is paying Samsung Electronics an "enormous sum of money" every month to pre-install its Gemini AI app on Samsung devices. This practice echoes Google's significant payments to Apple for default search engine status and is part of a pattern of paying tech giants for pre-installation and default placement of Google services, which have faced legal challenges. The payments and the ongoing trial underscore Google's market dominance and follow recent findings that Google holds illegal monopolies in areas including online advertising technology. It's an open secret that Google pays Apple top dollar to maintain its position as the default search engine on Safari. The move, which eventually resulted in the US Department of Justice calling Google a bully, is so dominant that it leaves competitors like Microsoft's Bing with no chance to compete. According to information uncovered via court documents last year, Google paid Apple a whopping $20 billion in 2022 alone, making up roughly 16.75 percent of the iPhone-maker's operating income for the year. Related Google pays Apple top dollar to be the default Safari search engine Roughly 16.75% of Apple's operating income in 2022 came from Google Posts Alas, history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. This time around, Google has been found paying a different tech giant money to favor its AI app. As highlighted by Bloomberg News after going through court testimonies in the ongoing US Department of Justice antitrust trial against Google, the tech giant has been paying Samsung an "enormous sum of money" on a monthly basis to pre-install Gemini on Samsung phones and other devices. The practice violates antitrust laws 5:30 Related How many pieces can Google be broken into? [Video] It depends on how hard the Justice Department's hammer lands... Posts 1 Google's payments to Samsung began in January this year, according to the testimony of Peter Fitzgerald, Google's vice president of platforms and device partnerships. Fitzgerald testified that the arrangement between the two (and the accompanying monthly payments) is expected to run for at least two years, and as part of it, Google pays Samsung a set amount for each device with Gemini pre-installed, alongside an undefined percentage of the revenue Google generates from advertisements within the app. Remedies are yet to be announced. This isn't the first time Google has been found paying Samsung off. Similar to its deal with Apple, Google also paid Samsung hefty sums to ensure its default search engine status on Samsung's devices. Separately, Google was also found to be monopolizing its grip on the Android ecosystem by paying Samsung roughly $8 billion to ensure Google Search, the Play Store, and Google Assistant were the default options on Samsung's mobile devices between 2020 and 2023. This comes soon after Google was found to be an illegal monopolist in the online advertising technology sector, with the US Department of Justice's sweeping remedies likely to include measures that force Google to divest several key areas of its online platforms and services. Related Google has an illegal grip on online advertising tech, court finds Google Ad Manager divestiture is on the table Posts 4

Google paid Samsung to preload and integrate Gemini AI on phones

A Google exec testified in court that the company paid Samsung "an enormous sum of money" to make its AI assistant the dominant option on Android. If you're using an Android phone, you've probably noticed that Google's Gemini AI assistant seems to be popping up everywhere, the same way it's been popping into Google Search, Docs, YouTube, etc. And this is true even if you aren't using a Google-branded phone. Turns out, that's no accident because Google is paying Samsung loads of money to make sure Gemini is front and center on its phones. The information comes from a predictable source: testimony in the ongoing and potentially disastrous Google antitrust case. (No, not that one, the other one. Google has lost two separate antitrust cases brought by the US federal government in the last year.) Bloomberg reports that Google is paying Samsung "an enormous sum of money" to put Gemini on its phones and integrate it into the One UI Android skin, according to Google platform and device partnership VP Peter Fitzgerald. The executive testified that the terms of the deal mean Google pays Samsung for every device that's preloaded with Gemini and heavily featuring it in the system. Samsung also gets a cut of the advertising revenue generated from Gemini searches and other actions. The contract was set in place for at least two years, though the precise parameters (and how much an "enormous sum" amounts to) aren't known. It makes sense for Samsung. The company has been pushing its latest Galaxy devices as chock-full of AI capabilities (with a skeptical-at-best response from the technology press), and of course it's pretty rare for a giant company to turn down dump trucks full of money. And this is a familiar move from Google, who's known to pay Apple billions every year to keep its search on the iPhone and other devices. Less straightforward transactions -- like insisting that phone makers load up their devices with Google services like Docs, Maps, and YouTube in order to keep access to the de facto standard Google Play Store app platform -- have gotten the company in regulatory trouble before. Users aren't exactly thrilled with Gemini. As it fills up Google Search with answers of questionable utility and replaces long-term Google integrations like Google Assistant for smart device management, plenty of people are looking for alternatives. Apropos of nothing, did I tell you I really like the Vivaldi browser? It remains to be seen what'll happen as a result of the antitrust verdicts. The US Department of Justice wants to force Google to divest itself of the Chrome browser, and the same might happen to Google's advertising business. Either (or both) would be a crushing blow to the tech giant, possibly knocking it out of its leading category. But it's far from certain whether these results will come about, and Google will exhaust appeals and every other option to keep them from happening.

Google and Samsung have a deal to pre-install Gemini - Phandroid

Turns out, Gemini didn't make it onto Samsung phones because it's the best AI assistant. It's there because Google paid for it. In court testimony this week, Google's VP of platform partnerships, Peter Fitzgerald, confirmed that the company struck a deal with Samsung earlier this year. Under the agreement, Google makes monthly payments to ensure Gemini comes pre-installed on Galaxy smartphones. Samsung also gets a cut of ad revenue generated by the AI. The timing is worth noting. These payments began in January, just as Google started pushing Gemini harder across its ecosystem. The contract runs for two years. This revelation came during the ongoing US antitrust trial, in which the Department of Justice is trying to determine just how far Google has gone to maintain its dominance, not just in search but now in AI. Last year, Google was already found guilty of monopolistic behavior in its core search business. Now, as regulators weigh penalties, fresh evidence is surfacing that the company is using similar tactics in the AI race. The DOJ is pushing for structural changes. That could mean Google being forced to split off Android and Chrome, or at the very least, stop bundling its services as defaults.

Google paid Samsung big to preinstall Gemini AI, authorities push for tough penalties

In addition, Samsung also earns a share of the revenue that Google makes from ads inside the Gemini app. Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google, has been paying Samsung Electronics a large sum of money every month to have its generative AI app, Gemini, preinstalled on Samsung devices. This was revealed during a recent antitrust hearing in a Washington federal court. Peter Fitzgerald, Google's vice president of platforms and device partnerships, confirmed in court that the payments to Samsung began in January and are part of a deal that lasts at least two years. The contract provides Samsung with fixed monthly payments for every device that comes with Gemini pre-installed, according to Bloomberg. In addition, Samsung also earns a share of the revenue that Google makes from ads inside the Gemini app. Also read: OpenAI would buy Chrome if Google is forced to sell, says ChatGPT chief at antitrust trials Fitzgerald testified that Samsung had also received "competitive offers" from other major tech companies such as Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI to feature their AI apps. "We took into consideration what was being offered by competitors," he said. While Google's agreement with Samsung gives the phone maker the option to include other AI services, the move has caught the attention of US authorities. Judge Amit Mehta, who is overseeing the trial, had already ruled last year that Google violated antitrust laws by paying Samsung to make its search engine the default on Samsung phones. The Justice Department has proposed banning Google from paying companies to make its search engine or AI products the default on devices. Although the exact amount of money paid to Samsung for Gemini wasn't shared in court, DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist called it an "enormous sum of money in a fixed monthly payment." Also read: Govt asks Google to remove this Chinese social media app from Play Store, here's why In a separate case, it was revealed that Google paid Samsung $8 billion between 2020 and 2023 to ensure that Google Search, the Play Store, and Google Assistant were the default on Samsung devices. In 2023, a federal jury ruled that Google misused its power in the Android app market, and a judge later ordered Google to ease restrictions that block rival marketplaces and billing systems.