Big quote: In a rare all-hands meeting at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, CEO Tim Cook made it clear to thousands of employees that AI now stands at the forefront of the company’s ambitions. Addressing a packed auditorium following a stronger-than-expected earnings report, Cook called the AI transformation “as big or bigger” than the internet, the smartphone, cloud computing, and apps. “Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab,” Cook told staff, vowing, “We will make the investment to do it.”
Tim Cook’s remarks come as Apple finds itself trailing some of its rivals in the AI race. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have funneled hundreds of millions into AI tools and infrastructure, while Apple’s own Apple Intelligence suite was (soft) launched later than similar offerings from competitors.
Even so, Cook noted that Apple’s history shows it rarely arrives first, yet frequently becomes the dominant force. “There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before the iPod,” he said. Nevertheless, Apple has gone on to define the modern era of each category. “This is how I feel about AI,” Cook said.
“All of us are using AI in a significant way already, and we must use it as a company as well,” Cook said. “To not do so would be to be left behind, and we can’t do that.”
During the hour-long meeting, Cook emphasized Apple’s commitment to investing more heavily in AI research and development. Of the 12,000 new hires last year, he said, 40 percent were recruited for R&D positions.
He also highlighted Apple’s willingness to consider acquisitions to accelerate its AI roadmap, telling staff, “We are very open to mergers and acquisitions that will expedite our development plans.” The company, he said, is eager to “allocate the resources necessary to accomplish it.”
Part of this effort includes a new AI-focused cloud chip, codenamed Baltra, which is expected to power Apple’s backend AI processing. Developed in collaboration with Broadcom and Apple’s in-house team, the chip will enable more advanced AI features for products like Siri while safeguarding user privacy by anchoring computation within Apple’s private cloud infrastructure.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s software chief, also addressed the assembly, discussing the company’s delayed Siri overhaul. Originally envisioned as a “hybrid architecture” combining legacy command processing with generative AI, the update fell short of Apple’s high standards.
“We understood that this strategy wouldn’t achieve Apple’s quality standards,” Federighi acknowledged. As a result, the team is transitioning Siri to a new, unified system with a more substantial upgrade than initially planned. “There is no project people are taking more seriously,” he said.
Beyond technology, Cook also touched on the company’s carbon neutrality goals, ongoing efforts in healthcare, and Apple’s plans to expand retail in emerging markets, including India, China, and Saudi Arabia.
But the central message was clear: Apple cannot afford to fall behind in AI. “All of us are using AI in a significant way already, and we must use it as a company as well,” Cook said. “To not do so would be to be left behind, and we can’t do that.”