Apple Intelligence, Mergers and Acquisitions

It was no surprise that analysts on the call were interested to hear what Tim Cook had to say about Apple’s plans for artificial intelligence. That’s the hot thing in the industry right now, and Apple is still viewed as lagging behind after a lukewarm rollout of Apple Intelligence last year and its failure to deliver on its promised Siri improvements.

”We’re making good progress on a more personalized Siri, and as we’ve said before, we expect to release these features next year, Cook reassured folks on the call. “We are also reallocating a fair number of people to focus on AI features within the company,” he added, explaining that Apple plans to continue significantly growing its investment in Apple Intelligence and related technologies.

Cook also hinted that acquisitions may be the key to some of this growth. When asked about “big M&A” (mergers and acquisitions), the Apple CEO shared that they’ve already acquired seven companies, and are regularly looking at more, “from all walks of life, not all AI oriented.”

We’re very open to M&A that accelerates our road map. We are not stuck on a certain size company, although the ones that we have acquired thus far this year are small in nature. But we basically ask ourselves whether a company can help us accelerate a roadmap. If they do, then we’re interested, but we don’t have anything to share specifically today.

Tim Cook

So far, Apple hasn’t made any massive acquisitions, just a handful of small companies. However, rumors still abound about the possibility of Apple folding in AI giants like Perplexity to bolster its search capabilities. It’s also reportedly fostering partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic to help build out its LLMs.