Samsung Electronics will not change the default search engine on its smartphones from Google to Microsoft Corp's Bing any time soon, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Shares of Google-parent Alphabet Inc gained more than one percent in premarket trading. Microsoft shares were down about one percent.

Samsung has suspended an internal review that explored replacing Google with Bing on its web-browsing app, which comes pre-installed on the company's smartphones, according to the report.

Google, Samsung and Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

A sizable part of the revenue earned by search-engine companies comes from their long-term partnerships with phone makers such as Apple Inc and Xiaomi.

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Google earns an estimated $3 billion in annual revenue from the Samsung contract, according to an April 16 report by the New York Times.

Another $20 billion is tied to a similar Apple contract that will be up for renewal this year, as per sources.

Samsung considering a potential shift to Bing was first reported last month and had weighed on Alphabet's shares at the time.

The integration of OpenAI's artificial intelligence technology into Microsoft-owned Bing has driven people to the little-used search engine and helped it compete better with market leader Google in page visits growth, according to data from analytics firm Similarweb.

For decades, Google has dominated the search market with a share of over 80 percent, but Wall Street fears the company could be falling behind Microsoft in a fast-moving AI race.

Also Read: Alphabet shares fall as Samsung considers making Bing its default search engine