Apple's CEO Signals Openness to AI Acquisition Deals
Apple is strategically deepening its commitment to artificial intelligence, with CEO Tim Cook signaling a notable openness to acquisition deals that could accelerate the company’s AI roadmap. This comes as Apple announced a 10% year-over-year overall revenue growth in its latest earnings report. The tech giant is shifting its focus, significantly increasing AI investments and reallocating internal talent to prioritize AI development across its devices, platforms, and the company as a whole.
During Apple’s fiscal Q3 2025 earnings call, Cook emphasized that AI is one of the “most profound technologies of our lifetime”. While Apple has traditionally favored smaller, “tuck-in” acquisitions, having already acquired seven companies in 2025 (not all AI-focused), Cook stated that the company is “very open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap” and is “not stuck on a certain size company”. This marks a potential departure from its historically conservative M&A approach, suggesting a willingness to consider larger deals to compete more effectively in the AI landscape.
Apple’s strategic pivot comes amidst increasing pressure from rivals like Microsoft and Google, who have made substantial AI investments. While Apple’s internal AI capabilities have reportedly lagged, and the rollout of an enhanced Siri has been delayed until 2026, the company is actively exploring ways to bolster its AI offerings. There have been rumors of internal discussions regarding the potential acquisition of AI search startup Perplexity, which recently closed a $1 billion funding round and is valued at over $18 billion. Such a deal would significantly surpass Apple’s largest acquisition to date, the $3 billion Beats deal in 2014. Apple has also reportedly held talks with OpenAI and Anthropic about licensing their large language models to power a smarter version of Siri, indicating a pragmatic approach to leveraging external AI expertise.
Beyond acquisitions, Apple is also substantially boosting spending on data centers to support its AI initiatives, with capital expenditures jumping to $3.46 billion in Q3, up from $2.15 billion the previous year. This increased investment, coupled with a focus on on-device intelligence and privacy, aims to integrate new AI-driven tools, such as visual intelligence capabilities and live translation features, across its ecosystem, including iPhones, iPads, AirPods, and Vision Pro. Despite facing headwinds earlier in the year, including supply chain disruptions and a lukewarm stock performance, Apple’s Q3 2025 earnings report, with an EPS of $1.57 and total revenue of $94.04 billion, has helped recalibrate investor sentiment, with iPhone sales continuing to lead the charge.