Tim Cook says Apple is open to M&A on the AI front

Apple CEO Tim Cook signaled to investors the company is still open to acquisitions and partnerships to move things forward on the AI front.

The comments were made this week during the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call. The exec also offered a brief update about Apple’s next-generation, AI-powered Siri, saying the service was still on track to launch in 2026.

“We’re making good progress on it, and as we’ve shared, we expect to release it next year,” Cook said during his opening remarks.

One analyst on the call also asked Cook if Apple was still pursuing a three-pronged approach when it came to the development of its personalized AI — meaning a combination of in-house Apple foundation models, partnerships with third-party LLM providers, and acquisitions.

Cook responded that Apple was still open to the latter, noting the company continually surveils the market on M&A and is “open to pursuing M&A if we think that it will advance our roadmap.”

In a pre-earnings interview with CNBC, Cook noted that Apple was preparing to announce more AI partnerships like the one it has with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and Apple Intelligence.

“Our intention is to integrate with more people over time,” Cook told the outlet.

On the earnings call, Cook also talked about how Apple creates foundation models, ships them on devices, and uses them in Private Cloud Compute, its cloud intelligence system designed specifically for private AI processing.

Cook shared later in the call that Apple is already using its Private Cloud Compute technology for a number of Siri queries and is continuing to build out that infrastructure.

“In fact, the manufacturing plant that makes the servers used for Apple Intelligence just started manufacturing in Houston a few weeks ago, and we’ve got a ramp planned there for use in our data centers. And, you know, it’s robust,” he said.

Cook additionally suggested that AI was a factor in consumers’ decision-making process when it comes to selecting a new smartphone.

“I would say that Apple Intelligence is a factor, and we’re very bullish on it becoming a greater factor,” he said.