The Google Gemini push on the Samsung Galaxy S25 series you've seen comes with a significant payday for the South Korean smartphone maker. Testimony from Google's ongoing antitrust trial in the US revealed that the search giant is paying an "enormous sum" as fixed monthly payments as part of a two-year deal between Google and Samsung. The latter also gets a share of Gemini subscription revenue.
For this unspecified amount, Samsung has sidelined its Bixby assistant to make Gemini the default artificial intelligence assistant in its flagship series. Internal documents from Google also revealed that it was considering more restrictive agreements with its partners, requiring them to preinstall Gemini alongside Search and Chrome.