Shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent Company, have fallen overnight after it was leaked that Samsung is close to cutting a deal with Microsoft to default Bing search instead of Google on their smartphones and tablets.

Bloomberg is reporting that Google employees were shocked when they learnt about Samsung’s rational to shift search engine providers.

Some analysts claim it’s all about money, with Samsung looking to get more fees from Microsoft than the $4 billion+ they currently generate from Google.

Shares of Alphabet fell as much as 4% as trading got underway in New York. In comparison, Microsoft went up 1.7% after the story broke.

Bing’s threat to Google’s search dominance has escalated in recent months, with the addition of Open Ai’s technology to provide ChatGPT-like responses to user queries.

Google is working to roll out a new AI search engine that will take on OPenAI currently being used by Microsoft in their Bing search engine.

The UIS search Company claims it’s adding artificial intelligence features to its existing offerings, under a project named Magi, which has more than 160 people working on it.

Google is “excited about bringing new AI-powered features to search and will share more details soon,” Lara Levin, a Google spokeswoman, said in a statement. A Google representative did not comment on the company’s negotiations with Samsung. A representative from Samsung declined to comment.

Samsung shipped 261 million smartphones in 2022, according to IDC data, all running Google’s Android software.