As a preamble to earnings, CEO Tim Cook said Apple is still looking to partner with companies other than OpenAI for Apple Intelligence integrations, but nothing is ready to be announced just yet.
Apple's Q4 earnings are in, and it's a good one that beats Wall Street expectations, though iPhone sales aren't increasing at a rate investors would like to see. Another significant interest for investors is AI, which Apple CEO Tim Cook did comment on in regards to earnings.
According to a quote shared by CNBC live on their cable show, Cook shared that more AI integrations are coming, but there's nothing to announce. This aligns with previous rumors that Apple was in talks with Anthropic and OpenAI to bring versions of their models to Apple's Private Cloud Compute.
These moves are of interest to investors since Apple Intelligence didn't catch the world on fire at launch. It did spike demand for iPhone, at least briefly, but a supercycle never took place driven by AI.
Apple delayed select features for Apple Intelligence when it discovered the implementation, tying ML and AI systems together, wasn't providing satisfactory results. So, after going back to the drawing board, Apple plans to release a fully LLM-backed Siri with app intent control in early 2026.
Cook says that the planned launch of the delayed features is still on track. That launch should also coincide with new AI partnerships, but nothing has been shared just yet about how that might work.
There have been hints, like Apple's requests to bring models to Private Cloud Compute to maintain consumer data privacy. There's also the addition of Model Context Protocol in iOS 26.1 that'll further improve Apple's ability to tie third-party AI to iPhone functions.
Fans of artificial intelligence need only wait a little longer for Apple's AI ecosystem to come together. Once launched, it should showcase Apple's vertical integration of hardware and software in a way that competitors can't match, making it a powerful AI platform.
Investors hope this will drive an upgrade cycle for the latest iPhone models that can run AI. It should drive demand for lower-priced iPhone 16, the latest iPhone 17 models, and the spring's iPhone 17e — all of which can run Apple Intelligence.
