After the company's latest quarterly earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook delivered a rare all-hands meeting to unify thoughts and boost morale. He described artificial intelligence as a "turning point on the scale of the internet or smartphones" and admitted that Apple was late in this race. However, he conveyed a firm determination to employees and the market: "Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is something we can seize."
Cook drew on Apple's historical success, pointing out that the company was not the first to enter the personal computer and smartphone markets, but ultimately won by defining future standards. "This is my view on artificial intelligence," he said.
To achieve this goal, Apple is significantly increasing its AI investments. CFO Kevin Parekh revealed during the earnings call that AI investment is the main reason for the company's current spending growth. In the past year, Apple has hired 12,000 new employees, 40% of whom have been assigned to the R&D department, working full-time on AI-related projects.
Rebuilding Siri, In-house Chip Development, and Strategic Shift
Apple's AI strategy is undergoing a profound transformation. Software head Craig Federighi told employees that Siri is being completely rebuilt on a unified architecture, with a new version expected to be released in 2026. Additionally, Apple is developing its own AI chips and building a new data center in Houston to reduce reliance on suppliers like NVIDIA. Unlike Google and Microsoft, Apple does not operate its own cloud infrastructure, but instead takes a hybrid approach of private cloud computing and partner solutions.
However, these efforts are also accompanied by significant challenges. Reports indicate that due to technical failures and poor management, updates to Siri have repeatedly been delayed. There was internal power struggles between the AI team led by John Giannandrea and the software team led by Federighi, which caused development stagnation. Eventually, the Siri team underwent personnel changes, with Federighi taking over. Additionally, Apple is facing a severe shortage of computing power, forcing it to abandon its long-standing device-side data processing strategy.
To address talent loss and technological gaps, Apple is considering a major strategic shift. Cook said the company is open to acquisitions of any size as long as they support the AI strategy. At the same time, Apple is reportedly in talks with competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic to explore integrating their models into Siri. This indicates that under Federighi's leadership, Apple is willing to take a more flexible approach, and if external open-source models perform better than its own research, the company is willing to integrate them.