‘Limited Impact’ from Tariffs So Far

It’s no surprise that the biggest question on analysts’ minds (and nearly everyone else’s) was about how Apple is weathering the storm of tariffs on its products, most of which still come from China.

During the first part of the call, Cook said that Apple had “a limited impact from tariffs,” partly because they hadn’t fully kicked in, and the company was able to “optimize its supply chain and inventory” (business-speak for flying planeloads of iPhones into the US to stay ahead of the tariffs).

Cook added that Apple can’t “precisely estimate the impact of tariffs as we are uncertain of potential future actions prior to the end of the quarter.” In other words, like everyone else on Wall Street, he has no idea what the unpredictable Trump administration and its mercurial President will come up with next.

However, assuming the tariff landscape remains unchanged throughout the quarter, Cook estimates these will increase Apple’s cost by $900 million. The Apple CEO was extremely careful to say that investors and analysts should not rely on this estimate to make projections “as there are certain unique factors that benefit the June quarter.” However, he didn’t expand on those until he was asked more pointed questions later in the call.

During the Q&A session, Cook shared that Apple has managed to avoid the worst of the tariffs so far by shipping more inventory into the United States and seeing the worst of the Chinese tariffs repealed, pending a Section 232 investigation into semiconductor imports. It’s uncertain when that investigation will conclude, but it could leave Apple off the hook for most of Q3 2025 — the “June quarter.” However, the Trump administration has promised to levy a new set of tariffs on elections in the next few months, so there’s still much uncertainty as to what will happen as no one knows how much those will be or when they’ll come into effect.