By Stephen Nellis

SAN FRANCISCO, June 10 (Reuters) - Stephen here, coming to you from Apple Park in Cupertino, where the maker of the iPhone unveiled a new version of its longtime virtual assistant called Siri AI the same day that OpenAI filed confidentially for what could be a blockbuster IPO.

Apple never lets reporters roam freely in its shimmering spaceship-like headquarters, where press and analysts were shuffled in and out over two days for extensive demos of the new Siri AI - and its better-than-ever access to all the data and features on Apple's 2.5 billion devices.

After playing with the new capabilities live, a fellow reporter remarked: "If Siri really works this well, will anyone ever use ChatGPT again?"

It's clear that Apple has OpenAI, whose relationship with the iPhone maker has curdled, in its sights as a competitor, and this looming clash says a lot about where the AI industry is now.

Hanging over both is SpaceX, whose record IPO is expected as early as this week and whose sheer scale could soak up investor demand before OpenAI and Anthropic get their turn.

Read on to find out how this jostling among the giants is reshaping the AI industry landscape.

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APPLE GOES ITS OWN WAY

For the past two years, the AI story was about who had the flashiest model, the fastest product launches and the loudest sales pitch about "agents."

This week, the emphasis shifted toward more tangible targets: durability and monetization. Apple is trying to prove it can still turn a late entry into a mass-market product. OpenAI is trying to show that ChatGPT is not just a cultural phenomenon, but the foundation of a business sturdy enough for public investors.

At Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, the company was eager to tell the world two things: the new Siri is finally here, and no, it's not just Google's Gemini.

The new Siri AI will be able to look at what's on the screen of your iPhone, iPad or Mac and sift through data in many of your apps to figure out what you want to do. This unlocks some tantalizing capabilities: A friend emails you asking what to bring on your weekend camping trip, and you tell Siri to make a packing list. Boom - it's done.

Underneath the hood, Siri AI uses an entirely new framework to take full advantage of work that Apple has already done to make its apps interact smoothly with Siri.

For consumers, the big test will be whether a wider swath of developers also puts in the engineering effort to make their apps work with Siri AI, even as they're being courted by OpenAI and others. At minimum, the new assistant will have to work seamlessly with email and calendar services from Google and Microsoft.

For investors, the question now is whether an improved Siri is enough to keep Apple competitive against OpenAI. Reuters reported that analysts described the WWDC announcements as measured rather than “earth-shaking.” Apple’s shares fell nearly 2% after its keynote.

OPENAI ENTERS THE CHAT

OpenAI's confidential IPO filing feels like it had plenty to do with the timing of Anthropic's similar announcement last week, and the red-hot interest in tech IPOs driven by SpaceX. But given OpenAI's purchase of former Apple design chief Jony Ive's startup and rumors that it wants to make an entire family of devices, it's hard to imagine that OpenAI chief Sam Altman doesn't have Apple on his mind.

A decade ago, investors might have thought it was crazy to take on an entrenched operating-system player like Apple with new hardware. Users are simply too attached to their iPhones and too much vital data lives on them. But from Seattle to San Diego, the notion suddenly doesn't look so far-fetched. Microsoft and Qualcomm last week showed new concept devices that would let users bypass traditional apps and operating systems altogether to work on tasks with an AI agent. That was a clear challenge to existing operating systems that Microsoft is, understandably, trying to get ahead of.

If Microsoft can push the idea of AI-first gadgets in the workplace, who's to say Sam Altman and Jony Ive can't make it happen in consumer markets? With Siri's more powerful presence across Apple's family of devices, Cupertino, it seems, is taking that threat seriously.