Tim Cook Signals Openness to Acquisition Deals

Apple is “very open” to mergers and acquisitions that align with the company’s roadmap, CEO Tim Cook said on an earnings call on Thursday.

Apple has not pursued generative AI as quickly as its rivals. With AI companies fervently competing for talent, mergers and acquisitions in the area might help Apple keep up.

Apple has acquired several companies in 2025

“We’re very open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap,” Cook said in Apple’s third-quarter earnings report, according to CNBC. “We are not stuck on a certain size company, although the ones that we have acquired thus far this year are small in nature.”

Apple reported that overall revenue grew 10% year over year.

Cook positioned Apple as willing to invest in AI, saying the company is open to buying ventures of any size that support its AI ambitions.

“We are significantly growing our investment. We did during the June quarter. We will again in the September quarter,” Cook said.

Apple has already acquired “around” seven companies this year, not all of them focused on AI.

Internal reorganization prioritizes AI development

Cook is moving staff around internally to make AI a higher priority, too.

“We are also reallocating a fair number of people to focus on AI features within the company,” he said. “We have a great team, and we’re putting all of our energy behind it.”

Apple has been more closed-mouthed about its large language model ambitions than its competitors. Apple Intelligence, the generative AI assistant, runs on custom Apple chips and outsources more challenging questions to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Cook sees AI-first hardware complementary to iPhone

Meanwhile, companies like OpenAI have begun to suggest AI-based devices might make tech staples like the iPhone obsolete.

OpenAI entered a partnership with iPhone designer Jony Ive in May to build AI-first hardware. No product has yet been revealed. Other initiatives to create AI-first devices, like the Rabbit R1, have failed to reach the mainstream.

Cook seemed unthreatened by the prospect of AI-powered devices stealing the iPhone’s crown.

“It’s difficult to see a world where iPhone’s not living in it,” Cook said, “That doesn’t mean that we are not thinking about other things as well, but I think that the devices are likely to be complementary devices, not substitution.”

Apple patched a zero-day exploit through which attackers could execute code through Google Chrome.