AI: Apple is putting more money into it – still promises new Siri for 2026
Besides iPhone sales, analysts were particularly interested in AI in Apple's figures. Management remained rather tight-lipped.
(Image: Apple / Screenshot YouTube)
The AI hype in Silicon Valley and on the stock market continues unabated – but Apple is still taking it slow. The company is still marketing neither its chatbot nor paid services for Apple Intelligence with more power, but is instead relying on local models and privacy-focused cloud services. Apple was also rather tight-lipped about AI in its quarterly earnings announced on Thursday. At least investments are increasing.
More spending on AI
Capital expenditures (CapEx) are rising to $18.1 to $18.5 billion, thanks primarily to AI. According to CFO Kevan Parekh, this is a significant increase. Operating expenses are therefore mainly fueled by research and development. "We are increasing our investments in AI while continuing to invest in our product roadmap." CEO Tim Cook emphasized that Apple remains open to acquisitions. When asked if this also applies to foundational AI models, he said Apple continues to monitor the market in this regard.
Videos by heise
"We are open to acquisitions if we believe it will advance our roadmap." The problem is: The prices for acquisitions in the AI market have now become so high that this could become a problem even for Apple's deep pockets. The company's largest acquisition to date was the audio manufacturer and music streaming provider Beats in 2014 – for a mere three billion US dollars from an AI market perspective.
Siri is still coming – eventually
The usual question about how Apple's revised voice assistant Siri, which the company had to postpone, is doing was also answered by Cook. According to his statement, they are still "on track" for a release next year. Currently, there is hope that it could be in the spring, but the teams recently expressed internal concerns. Apple has also already lost numerous employees from its AI division to competitors.
Interestingly, Cook did not want to provide any information on whether search volume on iPhone and Co. is decreasing due to AI – Apple receives at least 20 billion dollars from Google per year for this. The advertising business, which includes Apple's self-marketed advertising as well as search advertising via Google, has grown overall, according to Cook, and has reached record numbers. However, he refused to disclose how much is attributable to each area. "We don't break that down at that level."
(bsc)
