The company's CFO, Luca Maestri, further explained that Apple's capital expenditure wouldn't be affected by its near-term AI plans, suggesting that the company may be considering partnerships for AI services in addition to what it can handle on-device and by itself. This follows reports that Apple has been in discussions with OpenAI and Google to power an AI chatbot in an upcoming iOS update.
Key takeaways:
- Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the company will continue to pursue a “hybrid” approach to AI, without planning to build many new data centers for AI models.
- AI is seen as a key opportunity across the “vast majority” of Apple’s device lineup, not just the iPhone, and is being used across its products.
- Big AI announcements are not expected to be made before Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, and AI news is not expected at the iPad event scheduled for May 7.
- Apple is taking a hybrid approach to AI investments, with CFO Luca Maestri explaining that the company makes some investments itself, shares others with suppliers and partners, and uses both its own data center capacity and capacity from third parties.