Tim Cook says Apple is open to mergers and acquisitions on the AI ​​front

Apple CEO Tim Cook has indicated to investors that the company remains 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 executive also gave a brief update on Apple’s next generation, AI-powered Siri, saying the service is still on track to launch in 2026.

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

An analyst on the call also asked Cook whether Apple is still taking a three-pronged approach when it comes to developing its own custom AI — meaning a mix of Apple’s internal enterprise models, partnerships with third-party LLM providers, and acquisitions.

Cook responded that Apple remains open to the latter, noting that the company is constantly monitoring the market for M&A, and is “open to pursuing M&A if we believe 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 goal is to integrate with more people over time,” Cook told the outlet.

On the earnings call, Cook also talked about how Apple builds the core models, ships them on devices, and uses them in Private Cloud Compute, its cloud intelligence system specifically designed to process private AI.

Cook later shared on the call that Apple already uses its Private Cloud Compute technology for a number of Siri queries and continues to build out that infrastructure.

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

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

“I would say that Apple’s intelligence is an important factor, and we are very optimistic that it will become an even bigger factor,” he said.