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

Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted to investors that the company is still open to acquisitions and partnerships to take things forward on the AI ​​front.

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

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

An analyst on the call also asked Cook whether Apple is still pursuing a three-pronged approach to developing its personalized AI — meaning a combination of the in-house Apple Foundation model, partnerships with third-party LLM providers and acquisitions.

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

A Pre-earnings interview with CNBCCook noted that Apple is preparing to announce more AI partnerships, such as OpenAI, to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and Apple Intelligence.

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

In the earnings call, Cook also talked about how Apple builds foundation models, ships them to devices, and uses them Private cloud computingIts cloud intelligence system is specifically designed for personal AI processing.

Cook shared later in the call that Apple is already using its personal cloud computing technology for many Siri queries and will continue to build out that infrastructure.

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

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

“I would say that Apple Intelligence is a factor, and we’re very excited about it becoming a bigger factor,” he said.