Item 1 of 2 The Apple logo is shown atop an Apple store at a shopping mall in La Jolla, California, U.S., December 17, 2019, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File PhotoThe Apple logo is shown atop an Apple store at a shopping mall in La Jolla, California, U.S., December 17, 2019, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File PhotoChief Executive Tim Cook has fielded questions from Wall Street analysts about his plans for artificial intelligence amid grumbling that the iPhone maker has no AI story to tell.
Apple's Big Tech rivals have spent comparable or even greater amounts on R&D over the same period, but they have also been spending heavily to build data centers to host AI services.Apple thinks different. Its capital expenditure for all of 2023 was just over $10 billion. Responding to an analyst's question, Maestri noted the company's longstanding practice of splitting the cost of manufacturing tools with its suppliers, which has kept Apple's costs down and its cash generation up for more than a decade.