Is Apple eying a major AI investment?

Apple might be considering a major AI investment, according to CEO Tim Cook’s remarks on Thursday, made alongside the release of Apple’s third-quarter earnings results.

The earnings results showed that Apple raked in $94 billion (vs $89.53 billion expected) between April and June — a 10% increase over the same period last year.

Despite the financial progress, many believe that Apple still lags behind its major competitors in the AI race, including Microsoft and Alphabet's Google, which have brought millions of customers to try their AI-powered chatbots.

But it’s looking to catch up, as Cook said Apple is significantly growing its investments in AI, according to CNBC. This could potentially mean investing in projects like building more data centres.

“We’re embedding it across our devices, across our platforms, and across the company,” he explained.

When asked whether Apple, which has historically not done major deals, will take a different approach with its AI pursuit, Cook answered that the company has already acquired seven smaller companies and would consider acquiring larger ones, The Independent reports.

"We're very open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap. We are not stuck on a certain size company, although the ones that we have acquired thus far this year are small in nature.”

"We basically ask ourselves whether a company can help us accelerate a roadmap, and if they do, then we're interested."

Earlier in June, Apple faced an unprecedented set of technical and regulatory challenges, with many of its highly anticipated AI features, including coveted improvements to its digital assistant Siri, delayed until next year.

According to Bloomberg, Apple may open up in-house AI models to developers this year, as it currently still relies on partners, such as OpenAI, for some of its AI capabilities.

When asked whether Cook thinks that the AI devices, such as those in development by OpenAI, would threaten sales of the iPhone, he answered that he sees them as being complementary to the iPhone, rather than its replacement.

“It’s difficult to see a world where iPhone is not living in it,” Cook told analysts.