Google to Apple: You are ‘wrong, we continue to see … '

Google has formally contested Apple Senior Vice President

Eddy Cue

's court testimony that

Safari

searches declined last month, insisting in a company blog post that search queries from Apple devices continue to grow despite the rise of AI alternatives. "We continue to see overall query growth in Search. That includes an increase in total queries coming from Apple's devices and platforms," Google stated on Thursday, directly challenging Cue's assertion that Safari experienced its first search decline in 22 years.

The conflicting claims emerged amid Google's ongoing

antitrust trial

where the estimated $20 billion annual

search agreement

between the tech giants faces intense scrutiny from regulators and investors alike.

Google’s statement comes after it lost $160 billion after Cue’s testimony

Cue's testimony on Wednesday that "searches on Safari dipped for the first time last month" sent Google's stock plummeting approximately 8% as investors reacted to the suggestion that users might be abandoning traditional search for AI-powered alternatives like

ChatGPT

, Perplexity, and Anthropic. Google lost about $160 billion in market cap soon after Cue’s testimony went public.

"I believe that AI search providers will eventually replace standard search engines like Google," Cue testified, adding that Apple is "actively looking at" integrating these services into Safari, though they "probably won't be the default" as they still need improvement.Google's swift response aims to reassure investors that its search business remains robust despite the emerging AI search landscape. "As we enhance Search with new features, people are seeing that Google Search is more useful for more of their queries — and they're accessing it for new things and in new ways," the company explained.

Google may still remain the “default” choice for Apple

Cue's testimony revealed Apple is actively exploring partnerships with companies like Perplexity and Anthropic."We will add them to the list — they probably won't be the default," Cue testified, noting that Apple has already had "some discussions with Perplexity" and currently offers OpenAI's ChatGPT as an option in Siri. Google is expected to be added to iOS later this year through its

Gemini AI service

.Meanwhile, Cue acknowledged the financial implications, admitting he has "lost a lot of sleep thinking about" potentially losing Google's revenue share. Despite the concerning trends, he maintained that Google currently offers "the best financial terms" for Apple, suggesting the lucrative partnership remains valuable to both companies despite the changing market dynamics.