iPhone group: Apple ready for AI purchases of all size

After a setback in artificial intelligence, Apple is also open to large acquisitions to catch up to the competition faster. The iPhone group had to postpone a AI version of his voice assistant Siri to the coming year. Among other things, Google is hurried to embed his AI software Gemini deep into Android smartphones, for example from Apple’s archrival Samsung.

Apple boss Tim Cook now said that the group was “very open” for takeovers with which one would move faster. Even if Apple mostly bought small companies, “we are not fixed to a certain size,” he emphasized. At the moment, however, there is nothing to be announced. Overall, Apple is in the process of “considerably” increasing the AI investments, said Cook.

Who could buy Apple?

According to the Bloomberg financial service, Apple has already given bids for the AI companies Perplexity and Mistral. You play in a billion dollar league Apple has deep pockets. The greatest purchase of Apple to date was the takeover of the music company Beats for three billion dollars in 2014. Apple was able to start its own streaming service in competition with Spotify faster.

Even if Apple could not meet all AI promises – the group’s business is in full swing. Sales rose ten percent in the past quarter to a good $ 94 billion (82 billion euros). It was the strongest increase since 2021. Apple had expected an average of $ 89.5 billion in sales.

Fear of customs episodes cries on sales

Preeped purchases also played a role because of the import tariffs of US President Donald Trump. For fear of rising prices, some customers preferred to strike faster. Apple observed the trend in April mainly with iPhones and Mac computers, especially in the USA, said Cook. Apple assumes that around one percentage point of sales growth is based on the effect.

At the same time, Trump’s tariffs at Apple ensured additional costs of $ 800 million in the past quarter. That was less than the 900 million dollars previously promised. For the current quarter of a year, the group now expects $ 1.1 billion. A central reason for the expected increase is that you traditionally do more business this quarter, said Cook.

In the past quarter, Apple was able to easily digest the strain from the Trump tariffs. The group earned $ 23.43 billion (EUR 20.5 billion) and thus around 8.5 percent more than a year earlier.

iPhone business grown by 13 percent

Apple devices are mostly built in Asia, such as in China, India and Vietnam. High tariffs were gradually due for imports from these countries. The majority of iPhones sold in the USA now come from India instead of China. Trump continued to demand that Apple should produce iPhones in the USA. Experts think this is hardly feasible because the supply chains had shifted to Asia for decades.

The iPhone business grew by 13 percent to just under $ 44.6 billion in the year. Analysts had expected an average of only $ 40 billion. The iPhone is by far the most important Apple product. Since the market launch in 2007, more than three billion devices have been sold, as Apple also announced.

Cook: No world without iPhone

Since you can talk to AI software like Chatgpt, the industry is repeatedly discussed whether new devices for the era of artificial intelligence will make smartphones less relevant. Cook now stated that it was difficult to imagine a future without the iPhone. New devices would rather add and not replace it, he said before.