Google and Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai arrives at the federal courthouse in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023.
Jose Luis Magana | AP
Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended the company’s agreements to make its search engine the default on web browsers and phones, addressed the government’s allegations that it destroyed chat messages and described the company’s complicated relationship with Apple, during testimony in D.C. District Court on Monday.
The testimony was the first opportunity for government attorneys to press Alphabet’s top executive in open court on the company’s actions to secure its dominant position in online search. The Department of Justice and a coalition of state attorneys general are seeking to prove that Google has sought to lock out rivals from key distribution channels for search through exclusive deals with phone manufacturers and web browser-makers.
For the last month and a half of the trial, the government has been working to make its case that Google’s actions violate antitrust law through illegal monopoly maintenance. The lack of competition in general search tools, the government argues, deprives consumers of improved quality and choice.
The government’s cross-examination of Pichai on Monday highlighted how Google has contended with the possibility of losing out on key distribution channels when it was a much smaller company.
The government has claimed that Google unfairly cuts off rivals from places where consumers could find them by paying billions to secure its own search engine as the default on many access points. That, the government seemed to be arguing, is very similar to what Google railed against Microsoft for doing back in 2005.
At the time, Microsoft had announced the latest version of its web browser, Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). In that version, Microsoft planned to build search into its toolbar so that users did not need to download separate extensions to search from that part of the browser. The search engine for that module would be determined by whatever users picked in the previous version of IE.
But Google was concerned that it was too hard for users to find the setting to change the default search engine on IE7, so Microsoft’s own default engine would likely be the one to receive most of the queries entered through the new browser toolbar. Pichai testified that to his knowledge, “not a single user” used the IE setting in the earlier version of the browser to change the search engine from Microsoft’s.
While Google has argued in its own defense that users can easily switch their default search engine on browsers and phones if they so choose, Google’s then-Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote to Microsoft’s then-General Counsel Brad Smith in a 2005 letter, “As you know, most end users do not change defaults.”
That line hits at a key element of the government’s argument: that while it may be possible for users to switch their search engine on the Safari browser on the iPhone, for example, few actually do.
In defense, Pichai said Drummond’s statement was specific to the way Microsoft was implementing defaults on its browser.
“By pushing out an update of IE with a new search box that will default to Microsoft’s own search product in the vast majority of cases, Microsoft would gain a large number of search users for reasons having nothing to do with the merits of Microsoft’s search offering,” Drummond wrote at the time.
Google had “proposed instead that users be prompted to select the default search provider the first time they use the inline search feature,” Drummond wrote in the 2005 letter.
Pichai said the request reflected what Google saw as “a unique egregious case of how they were not honoring user preference at all,” because it didn’t reflect how users actually engaged with search engines.
Department of Justice attorney Meagan Bellshaw contrasted the request with Google’s approach to choice screens under its own revenue-sharing contracts with phone manufacturers.
Pichai testified that Google does not prohibit choice screens, but conceded that for phone manufacturers who agree to the revenue sharing agreement (RSA), providing a choice screen for the search engine would not be consistent with the agreement. He said that when doing a commercial deal like the RSA, “we are paying for enhanced promotion.” He added that phone manufacturers “have the option not to take the RSA.”
Later, Bellshaw showed a 2007 presentation from a Google employee who helped negotiate revenue-sharing deals. One slide said that “What Apple wants” is for Google to be one of two search provider options. Pichai said this was specifically for a version of Safari on PCs.
Notes from a 2007 meeting showed that Google was aware of the power of defaults. According to those notes, someone asked how much of a difference default status makes. The answer: “Typically 75% take rate. Defaults have strong impact.”
Relationship between Google and Apple
Pichai worried about losing employees to competitors, including Apple, the DOJ argued.
Bellshaw presented a 2019 email from Pichai, which the CEO said summarized another executive’s concerns with recent turnover. Pichai asked for “monthly reports of all losses to key competitors on an ongoing basis.” But if anyone from the search team went to Apple, he asked to be notified for each case.
Pichai said he wasn’t sure if he’d actually received those reports.
Bellshaw also tried to press Pichai on Google’s close relationship with Apple when it came to their search deal, while they competed in other realms like the smartphone market.
In notes from a 2018 meeting that included Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook, a Google executive recounted that Google expressed, “Our vision is that we work as if we are one company.” Pichai testified that he did not recall saying that line. He added that coming out of that meeting, during which Apple wanted to discuss concerns about revenue growth deceleration on Safari under their existing deal, “there was some what I would call irrational exuberance.”
In 2021, Pichai approved an extension of the 2016 deal with Apple.
On Friday, the court learned that Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 to be the default search engine on mobile phones and web browsers. That number includes how much it pays to Apple, as well as other companies.
Deleted chats
The DOJ also addressed Google’s policy of not automatically retaining internal chat messages, despite being subject to a litigation hold. In February, the DOJ alleged that Google “systematically destroyed” instant message chats through its history-off option that allowed them to be deleted every 24 hours unless a user manually changed the setting.
Pichai acknowledged he was aware of the history-off default for chat that persisted until February and that he had taken action to change that.
Bellshaw pointed to a message exchange where Pichai asked for history to be turned off in a group chat in 2021. Pichai testified that he did so to discuss a personnel matter, along the lines of who would be a good speaker at an event. It was not something even “remotely” close to something covered by the litigation hold, he said.
“I take great care to comply with all litigation holds,” Pichai testified.
Bellshaw also asked if Pichai would mark documents or messages as attorney-client privileged and copy Google’s Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker, even when he wasn’t explicitly seeking legal advice. Pichai said no.
Bellshaw pointed to Pichai’s 2022 deposition, where he conceded it was possible that on occasion he accidentally included Walker and asked for advice, when he was really seeking to mark something as confidential.
Bellshaw also returned to the earlier letter Drummond sent to Smith in 2005 about IE7. In the letter, Drummond said legal action was a “foreseeable possibility” and asked Microsoft to “take care to retain all past and future records relating to any plans to tie search to any Microsoft product or otherwise deprive consumers of competitive choice and search.”
Formula One F1 – United States Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S. – October 23, 2022 Tim Cook waves the chequered flag to the race winner Red Bull’s Max Verstappen
Mike Segar | Reuters
Apple had two major launches last month. They couldn’t have been more different.
First, Apple revealed some of the artificial intelligence advancements it had been working on in the past year when it released developer versions of its operating systems to muted applause at its annual developer’s conference, WWDC. Then, at the end of the month, Apple hit the red carpet as its first true blockbuster movie, “F1,” debuted to over $155 million — and glowing reviews — in its first weekend.
While “F1” was a victory lap for Apple, highlighting the strength of its long-term outlook, the growth of its services business and its ability to tap into culture, Wall Street’s reaction to the company’s AI announcements at WWDC suggest there’s some trouble underneath the hood.
“F1” showed Apple at its best — in particular, its ability to invest in new, long-term projects. When Apple TV+ launched in 2019, it had only a handful of original shows and one movie, a film festival darling called “Hala” that didn’t even share its box office revenue.
Despite Apple TV+being written off as a costly side-project, Apple stuck with its plan over the years, expanding its staff and operation in Culver City, California. That allowed the company to build up Hollywood connections, especially for TV shows, and build an entertainment track record. Now, an Apple Original can lead the box office on a summer weekend, the prime season for blockbuster films.
The success of “F1” also highlights Apple’s significant marketing machine and ability to get big-name talent to appear with its leadership. Apple pulled out all the stops to market the movie, including using its Wallet app to send a push notification with a discount for tickets to the film. To promote “F1,” Cook appeared with movie star Brad Pitt at an Apple store in New York and posted a video with actual F1 racer Lewis Hamilton, who was one of the film’s producers.
(L-R) Brad Pitt, Lewis Hamilton, Tim Cook, and Damson Idris attend the World Premiere of “F1: The Movie” in Times Square on June 16, 2025 in New York City.
Jamie Mccarthy | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Although Apple services chief Eddy Cue said in a recent interview that Apple needs the its film business to be profitable to “continue to do great things,” “F1” isn’t just about the bottom line for the company.
Apple’s Hollywood productions are perhaps the most prominent face of the company’s services business, a profit engine that has been an investor favorite since the iPhone maker started highlighting the division in 2016.
Films will only ever be a small fraction of the services unit, which also includes payments, iCloud subscriptions, magazine bundles, Apple Music, game bundles, warranties, fees related to digital payments and ad sales. Plus, even the biggest box office smashes would be small on Apple’s scale — the company does over $1 billion in sales on average every day.
But movies are the only services component that can get celebrities like Pitt or George Clooney to appear next to an Apple logo — and the success of “F1” means that Apple could do more big popcorn films in the future.
“Nothing breeds success or inspires future investment like a current success,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
But if “F1” is a sign that Apple’s services business is in full throttle, the company’s AI struggles are a “check engine” light that won’t turn off.
Replacing Siri’s engine
At WWDC last month, Wall Street was eager to hear about the company’s plans for Apple Intelligence, its suite of AI features that it first revealed in 2024. Apple Intelligence, which is a key tenet of the company’s hardware products, had a rollout marred by delays and underwhelming features.
Apple spent most of WWDC going over smaller machine learning features, but did not reveal what investors and consumers increasingly want: A sophisticated Siri that can converse fluidly and get stuff done, like making a restaurant reservation. In the age of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, the expectation of AI assistants among consumers is growing beyond “Siri, how’s the weather?”
The company had previewed a significantly improved Siri in the summer of 2024, but earlier this year, those features were delayed to sometime in 2026. At WWDC, Apple didn’t offer any updates about the improved Siri beyond that the company was “continuing its work to deliver” the features in the “coming year.” Some observers reduced their expectations for Apple’s AI after the conference.
“Current expectations for Apple Intelligence to kickstart a super upgrade cycle are too high, in our view,” wrote Jefferies analysts this week.
Siri should be an example of how Apple’s ability to improve products and projects over the long-term makes it tough to compete with.
It beat nearly every other voice assistant to market when it first debuted on iPhones in 2011. Fourteen years later, Siri remains essentially the same one-off, rigid, question-and-answer system that struggles with open-ended questions and dates, even after the invention in recent years of sophisticated voice bots based on generative AI technology that can hold a conversation.
Apple’s strongest rivals, including Android parent Google, have done way more to integrate sophisticated AI assistants into their devices than Apple has. And Google doesn’t have the same reflex against collecting data and cloud processing as privacy-obsessed Apple.
Some analysts have said they believe Apple has a few years before the company’s lack of competitive AI features will start to show up in device sales, given the company’s large installed base and high customer loyalty. But Apple can’t get lapped before it re-enters the race, and its former design guru Jony Ive is now working on new hardware with OpenAI, ramping up the pressure in Cupertino.
“The three-year problem, which is within an investment time frame, is that Android is racing ahead,” Needham senior internet analyst Laura Martin said on CNBC this week.
Apple’s services success with projects like “F1” is an example of what the company can do when it sets clear goals in public and then executes them over extended time-frames.
Its AI strategy could use a similar long-term plan, as customers and investors wonder when Apple will fully embrace the technology that has captivated Silicon Valley.
Wall Street’s anxiety over Apple’s AI struggles was evident this week after Bloomberg reported that Apple was considering replacing Siri’s engine with Anthropic or OpenAI’s technology, as opposed to its own foundation models.
The move, if it were to happen, would contradict one of Apple’s most important strategies in the Cook era: Apple wants to own its core technologies, like the touchscreen, processor, modem and maps software, not buy them from suppliers.
Using external technology would be an admission that Apple Foundation Models aren’t good enough yet for what the company wants to do with Siri.
“They’ve fallen farther and farther behind, and they need to supercharge their generative AI efforts” Martin said. “They can’t do that internally.”
Apple might even pay billions for the use of Anthropic’s AI software, according to the Bloombergreport. If Apple were to pay for AI, it would be a reversal from current services deals, like the search deal with Alphabet where the Cupertino company gets paid $20 billion per year to push iPhone traffic to Google Search.
The company didn’t confirm the report and declined comment, but Wall Street welcomed the report and Apple shares rose.
In the world of AI in Silicon Valley, signing bonuses for the kinds of engineers that can develop new models can range up to $100 million, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“I can’t see Apple doing that,” Martin said.
Earlier this week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent a memo bragging about hiring 11 AI experts from companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google’s DeepMind. That came after Zuckerberg hired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to lead a new AI division as part of a $14.3 billion deal.
Meta’s not the only company to spend hundreds of millions on AI celebrities to get them in the building. Google spent big to hire away the founders of Character.AI, Microsoft got its AI leader by striking a deal with Inflection and Amazon hired the executive team of Adept to bulk up its AI roster.
Apple, on the other hand, hasn’t announced any big AI hires in recent years. While Cook rubs shoulders with Pitt, the actual race may be passing Apple by.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks alongside U.S. President Donald Trump to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who bombarded President Donald Trump‘s signature spending bill for weeks, on Friday made his first comments since the legislation passed.
Musk backed a post on X by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who said the bill’s budget “explodes the deficit” and continues a pattern of “short-term politicking over long-term sustainability.”
The House of Representatives narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Thursday, sending it to Trump to sign into law.
Paul and Musk have been vocal opponents of Trump’s tax and spending bill, and repeatedly called out the potential for the spending package to increase the national debt.
The independent Congressional Budget Office has said the bill could add $3.4 trillion to the $36.2 trillion of U.S. debt over the next decade. The White House has labeled the agency as “partisan” and continuously refuted the CBO’s estimates.
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The bill includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts, increased spending for immigration enforcement and large cuts to funding for Medicaid and other programs.
It also cuts tax credits and support for solar and wind energy and electric vehicles, a particularly sore spot for Musk, who has several companies that benefit from the programs.
“I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump wrote in a social media post in early June as the pair traded insults and threats.
Shares of Tesla plummeted as the feud intensified, with the company losing $152 billion in market cap on June 5 and putting the company below $1 trillion in value. The stock has largely rebounded since, but is still below where it was trading before the ruckus with Trump.
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Tesla one-month stock chart.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger and Erin Doherty contributed to this article.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at the Axel Springer building in Berlin on Oct. 17, 2023. He received the annual Axel Springer Award.
Ben Kriemann | Getty Images
Among the thousands of Microsoft employees who lost their jobs in the cutbacks announced this week were 830 staffers in the company’s home state of Washington.
Nearly a dozen game design workers in the state were part of the layoffs, along with three audio designers, two mechanical engineers, one optical engineer and one lab technician, according to a document Microsoft submitted to Washington employment officials.
There were also five individual contributors and one manager at the Microsoft Research division in the cuts, as well as 10 lawyers and six hardware engineers, the document shows.
Microsoft announced plans on Wednesday to eliminate 9,000 jobs, as part of an effort to eliminate redundancy and to encourage employees to focus on more meaningful work by adopting new technologies, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The person asked not to be named while discussing private matters.
Scores of Microsoft salespeople and video game developers have since come forward on social media to announce their departure. In April, Microsoft said revenue from Xbox content and services grew 8%, trailing overall growth of 13%.
In sales, the company parted ways with 16 customer success account management staff members based in Washington, 28 in sales strategy enablement and another five in sales compensation. One Washington-based government affairs worker was also laid off.
Microsoft eliminated 17 jobs in cloud solution architecture in the state, according to the document. The company’s fastest revenue growth comes from Azure and other cloud services that customers buy based on usage.
CEO Satya Nadella has not publicly commented on the layoffs, and Microsoft didn’t immediately provide a comment about the cuts in Washington. On a conference call with analysts in April, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said the company had a “focus on cost efficiencies” during the March quarter.