Most people are not special, rational, or particularly good. They're tribal primates running social scripts, ranking status, and defending comforting lies over evidence. Intelligence, drive, and outcomes are heavily genetic. Equality of result is a fantasy. The average person will never produce anything of lasting value, and the world is carried by a thin minority they resent.
Ok I'm calling it now. I have said this before and I am doubling down on this.
Bookmark this.
Apple partners with SpaceX for the Siri AI rollout, and Grok becomes the brain.
Sounds crazy. But it’s actually the most obvious match in tech. Here's why:
Apple reportedly wants Siri to become an agent. Not answering questions, taking actions and finishing tasks for you. On 2.5B+ active devices. That's the biggest agent launch in history, and Apple has to pick the brain.
The options: OpenAI, Meta, Google Gemini, Anthropic, Grok. Most people will compare benchmarks. Wrong game. Benchmarks change every month, strategy doesn't. Here's how I'd play it if I were the Apple Ceo.
1. Don't arm your rival
Never make a future competitor stronger with your own distribution.
OpenAI paid $6.5B for Jony Ive's io. The man who designed the iPhone is building OpenAI's own device, first one no earlier than end of February 2027 per a court filing. Apple is already suing OpenAI and io over hardware trade secrets.
Meta sells $799 Ray-Ban Display glasses, and in September showed Muse Charm: own OS, built-in 5G, ships in December, made to reach Meta's AI without your phone. Reuters said Zuckerberg took repeated digs at Apple on stage.
Google makes Android and the Pixel. Apple's direct competitor for 17 years.
3 of 5 options are building the thing that replaces the iPhone. Give them Siri and you pay to train the AI that ends up in their hardware. That's a hold-up problem: your supplier is your competitor, and the day it doesn't need you, it squeezes you.
2. Commoditize your complement
Apple's best move has always been to make everything around the iPhone cheap and swappable, and keep the iPhone scarce. A model maker with no device wants to be inside the best device. A model maker with its own device wants your phone to become a dumb pipe to its AI. You don't hand your shelf to someone whose dream is that your shelf disappears.
3. Leverage against Google
Google pays Apple about $20B a year for Safari search. Gemini now powers the new Siri, and Apple pays Google for it. That's a lot of Apple running through one rival. The judge in the search case killed exclusive deals, forced yearly contracts and said Apple is free to push rival AI, Siri included. That's your BATNA, your best alternative if a deal falls through. Every bit of Siri Grok gets weakens Google's hand. Even if Gemini stays, a real second brain makes every renewal cheaper.
4. Anthropic, the honest competitor
No phone, no glasses, no OS. It doesn't threaten the iPhone either. But its own S-1 lists about $121B committed to Google, $110B to Amazon, about $45B to Microsoft and up to $120.5B to SpaceX. Pick Anthropic and your Siri agent runs on compute rented from Google and Amazon, both selling phones, speakers or assistants against you. The rival left through the front door and walked back in through the data center lol
5. The compute game
An agent isn't one question. It's task after task in the background, all day. On 2.5B devices that's the biggest compute bill ever. The question isn't who has the best model this month, it's who can serve 2.5B devices in two years without asking a competitor for chips. SpaceX had about 2.2 GW of its own compute running in October, aiming for 2.5 to 3 GW by year end. Even Anthropic rents from it.
6. Grok checks every box
No phone. Elon: "We are not developing a phone." When the WSJ reported a SpaceX handset prototype in July he called it "Utterly false." Honest part: he also said a phone is "not out of the question at some point." My read: with rockets, satellites, an AI lab and a chip fab to scale, a phone fight with Apple is the last thing SpaceX needs.
Own compute: Colossus. Own satellite layer that already talks to phones: Starlink. Own distribution: X has been #1 in News on the US App Store every day since 23 Sept.
Grok doesn't need Apple to survive, but wants the iPhone shelf more than anyone. Hungry, not desperate, and not building a rival phone. The best kind of partner.
7. The repeated game
Deals like this run year after year, so trust beats price. For years Cook and Elon couldn't do business: App Store fights, iPhone ban threats, a lawsuit. Then Ternus became CEO on 1 Sept, Elon replied "Congrats!", and 13 days later the lawsuit was dropped for good. The filing says "resolved." Terms sealed. That's a fresh start. Both sides proved they'd rather cooperate than fight, and that's worth more than any benchmark.
8. The kingmaker move
Apple doesn't need the strongest AI company. Apple IS the kingmaker. 2.5B devices pick the winner. So crown the one that needs your shelf most, can't threaten your phone and brings its own compute. That's one name on the list.
My guess: Grok lands behind Siri next to Gemini first, and the agent layer goes to whoever can pay the compute bill. I've been early on Apple x SpaceX before, I'll own that. But the board has never set up better than today.
Cook needed a phone to sell. Ternus needs an agent that works. Pick the one that won't become your next competitor.
$SPCX $AAPL
Denis Villeneuve has officially signed on to direct ‘ARRIVAL: FIRST LIGHT,’ a direct sequel to his 2016 sci-fi masterpiece.
Amy Adams is locked to return as Louise Banks, with Jeremy Renner reportedly in talks to reprise his role.