Apple bets on AI hardware
- Apple’s AI strategy is being recast around hardware as incoming chief executive John Ternus prepares to take over from Tim Cook on September 1. - Apple has already tied its next Apple Foundation Models and a rebuilt Siri to Google Gemini, while Bloomberg says a foldable iPhone is due in September. - The shift puts devices, not giant in-house models, at the center of Apple’s next AI push. (bloomberg.com)
Apple is reorganizing its artificial intelligence push around devices as hardware chief John Ternus prepares to become Apple’s next chief executive on September 1. (apple.com) (bloomberg.com) That does not mean Apple is abandoning AI software. It means the company is leaning on outside model horsepower from Google Gemini while trying to turn Siri, iPhone, AirPods, home devices, and future wearables into the products people actually touch. (bloomberg.com) (techcrunch.com) Google and Apple said on January 12 that the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Gemini models and cloud technology. The companies said Apple will keep running AI services on devices or through Private Cloud Compute, its secure server system. (bloomberg.com) That arrangement gives Apple a way to ship AI features without matching the spending race now led by companies building giant foundation models in-house. Bloomberg reported in November that Apple was planning to pay about $1 billion a year for Google’s model support. (bloomberg.com 1) (bloomberg.com 2) Ternus’s promotion sharpened that picture. Apple said on April 20 that Tim Cook will become executive chairman and Ternus, the senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will take over as chief executive after 25 years focused on product development. (apple.com) (bloomberg.com) In internal messages to staff, Cook called Apple’s product roadmap “extraordinary,” and Bloomberg reported that Ternus used his first employee meetings to talk about artificial intelligence, product plans, and design. (9to5mac.com) (bloomberg.com) The clearest near-term example is the foldable iPhone. Bloomberg reported on April 7 that Apple’s first foldable phone remains on track for a September debut alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. (bloomberg.com) TechCrunch reported that Ternus is also expected to push products that have lingered in development, including smart glasses, camera-equipped wearables, AirPods with added AI features, and home robotics concepts tied back to the iPhone and Siri. (techcrunch.com) Apple’s own public line still centers privacy and vertical integration. In the Gemini announcement, Apple and Google said Apple would preserve its privacy standards by keeping AI work on consumer devices or in Private Cloud Compute rather than sending everything to third-party clouds. (bloomberg.com) So Apple’s wager is coming into focus: buy or partner for the model layer, keep tight control over the privacy layer, and sell the hardware layer. Ternus now inherits the job of proving that strategy can produce the next hit device as well as a better Siri. (bloomberg.com) (apple.com)
