Apple CEO Tim Cook to employees: AI ‘as big or bigger' than the internet, warns not using it will ...
CEO
Tim Cook
delivered a rare company-wide rallying cry earlier this month, telling employees that artificial intelligence represents the company's next major opportunity and warning that failing to embrace AI tools would leave the tech giant behind competitors.
Speaking to staff at Apple's Cupertino headquarters for an hour-long all-hands meeting,
Cook
declared the AI revolution "as big or bigger" than the internet, smartphones, and cloud computing. "Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab," Cook told employees, according to Bloomberg sources familiar with the meeting.
The CEO urged employees to rapidly integrate AI into their daily work and future product development. "All of us are using AI in a significant way already, and we must use it as a company as well," Cook emphasized. "To not do so would be to be left behind, and we can't do that."
Tim Cook tells employees Apple's been "rarely first" but it still wins
Cook acknowledged Apple's late entry into artificial intelligence, with Apple Intelligence debuting months behind competitors like ChatGPT and Google's AI tools. However, he drew parallels to Apple's historical pattern of arriving late but defining entire product categories.
"We've rarely been first," Cook told staff. "There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone." But Apple created the "modern" versions of those categories, he emphasized, expressing similar confidence about AI's potential.
Senior VP Craig Federighi revealed Apple scrapped plans for a hybrid Siri system after realizing it wouldn't achieve company quality standards. The new approach involves rebuilding Siri entirely on large language models, with Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell now leading the effort. "There is no project people are taking more seriously," Federighi said.
12,000 new hires signal massive AI push, and Cook says he's never felt so excited
Cook revealed Apple hired 12,000 new workers in the past year, with 40% joining research and development to accelerate AI initiatives. The company is developing specialized cloud-computing chips code-named Baltra and establishing an AI server facility in Houston to support its growing artificial intelligence infrastructure, Bloomberg has previously reported.
The CEO also addressed mounting regulatory pressures and potential Trump administration tariffs that could create a $1.1 billion quarterly headwind. "We need to continue to push on the intention of the regulation," Cook said, criticizing rules that "destroy the user experience and user privacy and security." Despite these challenges, he expressed extraordinary optimism: "I have never felt so much excitement and so much energy before as right now."
AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Gamblers now bet on AI models like racehorses
Now that AI developers are getting paid like pro athletes, it's fitting that fans are placing big bets on how well they're doing their jobs. On Kalshi, Polymarket and other sites where people wager 'predictions" on real-world events, gamblers lay down millions each month on their picks for AI's top model. The AI arms race is playing out in plain sight on social media, ranking sites and obscure corners of the internet where enthusiasts hunt for clues. The constant buzz makes the topic appealing for wagers, though not every scrap of information is meaningful. Foster McCoy made $10,000 in a few hours in early August by betting against the success of OpenAI's GPT-5 release. The 27-year-old day trader noticed people were misreading an online ranking site that appeared to hype GPT-5, so he put $4,500 on its competitor, Google's Gemini, to be 'Best AI This Month." As more bettors fell in line with his call, he cashed out. That's just another day for McCoy, who has traded $3.2 million on Kalshi since the start of 2025—making $170,000. He's part of a growing contingent of bettors making hundreds of trades a week on AI markets, on a range of wagers such as 'Best AI at the end of 2025," 'AI regulation becomes federal law this year," and 'Will [Chief Executive] Sam Altman be granted an equity stake in OpenAI this year?" Trading volume across AI prediction markets has surged to around $20 million this month. Kalshi, the only platform currently available in the U.S., is seeing 10 times the volume on AI trades compared with the start of the year, a spokesman says. Each bet, or 'contract," is priced in cents to reflect the odds: McCoy bought thousands of Gemini contracts at around 40 cents, meaning it had a 40% chance of winning. If the bet had settled and Gemini won, McCoy's 40 cents would become a dollar. If Gemini lost, McCoy would lose it all. But much of the action happens before the final outcome. As more people piled into the Gemini bet, the contract price rose. McCoy sold when it had reached 87 cents. It's like betting on a sports match, only with the option to cash out when the odds rise in favor of your bet. 'You're just betting against what the other guy knows," says McCoy, who credits his success to 'being chronically online." He trades from home on a triple-monitor setup tuned to the holy trinity of AI betting: X, Discord and LMArena, a leaderboard where people rate AI model performance in blind tests. Social-media beefs can be gold for gamblers. After GPT-5's debut, a flurry of Elon Musk posts claiming the superiority of his xAI Grok chatbot sent the 'Grok to Win" market up more than 500% within hours. Before long, it had fallen nearly all the way back down. Bettors end up down rabbit holes hunting for more obscure tidbits. Harvard undergraduate Rishab Jain often scans X accounts of lesser-known researchers. The day before GPT-5's release, OpenAI's Sam Altman posted an image of the Death Star from 'Star Wars." When a researcher from Google's DeepMind replied with an image of the killer globe under attack, Jain read it as a sign of confidence from Gemini's makers. Jain also scrapes source files from Google's apps and monitors public GitHub repositories tied to its products, looking for back-end changes that might signal a soon-to-be-released Gemini model. 'I'm almost obsessively up-to-date with what's going on in this world," Jain says. 'Google has so many products that need to integrate a new model before it officially launches, and you can see those changes happening in the back end if you know where to look." Since starting in June, he has won $3,500. Strategies vary. Some bet on the big industry players, others buy low on less-known or soon-to-be-updated models. Some compare odds on Kalshi and Polymarket to find arbitrage opportunities in the odds. As volume for these AI trades continues to grow, the incentive for good information will only increase, and the squeeze on casual bettors will get tighter, says Robin Hanson, a professor of economics at George Mason University. 'When you have better information in these kinds of markets, you can make better decisions," Hanson says. 'If you know a little more, you make more money." For now, the markets still draw a mix of sharks like McCoy and Jain along with casual bettors. 'I'm just a dude that likes tech and has some time and money," says James Cole, a 35-year-old who recently shut down a company he founded. 'I'm speculating with mostly instinct and 10 minutes of research." He says he's up for the year…so far. Write to Ben Raab at
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Apple India leases 2.7 lakh sq ft office space from Embassy Group in Bengaluru for 10 years at over ₹1,000 crore
Apple India Pvt Ltd has leased around 2.7 lakh sq ft of office space in real estate developer Embassy Group's project Embassy Zenith in Bengaluru for a 10-year term, with a total rental outlay of over ₹1,000 crore, setting a benchmark with lease rates touching almost ₹235 per sq ft per month, documents accessed by Propstack showed. Apple India Pvt Ltd has leased about 2.7 lakh sq ft of office space in real estate developer Embassy Group's project Embassy Zenith in Bengaluru for a 10-year term (Representational photo)(Pixabay) The tech giant will pay a total of ₹1,010 crore over 10 years, inclusive of rent, parking, and common area maintenance charges, the documents showed. The iPhones and IPads maker has leased nine floors, from the 5th to the 13th, with a carpet area of 1.96 lakh sq ft and a chargeable area of 2.68 lakh sq ft in Bengaluru's Sankey Road from Mac Charles (India) Ltd. Apple will pay ₹6.31 crore per month, translating to ₹235 per sq ft. Apple will receive a total of 362 car parking spaces as part of the deal, the documents showed. The company has deposited ₹31.57 crore as security, and the agreement includes an annual rent escalation of 4.5%, the documents showed. The company also has the option to lease additional space measuring 1.21 lakh sq ft across the ground to fourth floors, the documents showed. An email query has been sent to Apple India Private Limited and Embassy Group. The story will be updated if a response is received. Apple Inc has leased office space in a commercial project on a 2.3-acre land parcel, previously occupied by the Le Meridien hotel, overlooking Bangalore Golf Club and Cubbon Park. Embassy Group, which acquired the property years ago, is developing the tower comprising two basements, a ground floor, and 13 upper floors, the documents showed. 'Apple's 10-year commitment for prime office space in Bengaluru highlights their immense confidence in the Indian market. This investment in talent and operations runs parallel to their manufacturing scale-up for iPhones with companies like Foxconn. Together, these moves solidify India's crucial position at the heart of Apple's global supply chain and innovation efforts,' said Raja Seetharaman, co-founder Propstack. Other Apple India transactions in Bengaluru In May 2025, Apple India leased 7997.8 sq ft of retail space in North Bengaluru's upscale Phoenix Mall of Asia for an annual rent of ₹2.09 crore for 10 years, according to documents accessed by Propstack. The lease has a tenure of 10 years with a 15% escalation in both rent and security deposit every three years. Apple has paid a security deposit of ₹1.046 crore, the document showed. Also Read: Bengaluru: Here's how Foxconn's iPhone plant is reshaping Devanahalli's real estate market The lease also included a revenue-sharing component, almost 2% of revenue for the first 36 months and 2.5% thereafter. However, revenue share payments are capped at twice the value of the applicable yearly minimum guaranteed rent, the document showed. According to media reports, in 2023 Apple leased several floors of Prestige Estates Projects' commercial building, Prestige Minsk Square, in Bengaluru's central business district on Cubbon Road, for 10 years at a starting monthly rent of ₹2.44 crore. Foxconn facility in Bengaluru Real estate experts note that Foxconn's facility in Bengaluru is already fueling demand for residential and commercial properties in Devanahalli, driven by rising employment opportunities and infrastructure development. Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn's Bengaluru factory, its second-largest manufacturing unit, has commenced operation with production of iPhone 17 recently at a small scale, sources aware of the development told PTI. Also Read: Office leasing across top 8 cities clocks 48.9 mn sq ft in H1 2025; Bengaluru sees record absorption at 18.2 mn sq ft Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of iPhones, and the second-biggest facility outside China in Devanahalli near Bengaluru, being set up at an investment of $2.8 billion (about ₹25,000 crore). "Foxconn Bengaluru unit has commenced operation with the production of iPhone 17. This is in addition to the production of iPhone 17 at its Chennai unit," a source aware of the development told PTI.
Mint
3 hours ago
- Mint
AI Boom Seen Driving Next Decade of Emerging Markets Performance
(Bloomberg) -- Emerging-market funds are pivoting to capture the artificial intelligence craze, with some investors predicting that booming technology spending will drive returns for years to come. Encouraged by the success of Chinese AI developer DeepSeek and Asia's powerhouse semiconductor firms, asset managers like AllSpring Global Investments and GIB Asset Management are concentrating more of their portfolio in AI stocks. That's been a winning trade, with AI companies being the six biggest contributors to the rally in Bloomberg's EM stocks index this year. 'This trend could last for the next 10 to 20 years,' said Alison Shimada, head of total emerging markets equity at AllSpring, which oversees $611 billion. 'The impact on local populations within EM will be transformational.' While much of the AI investment frenzy has focused on a handful of Silicon Valley firms, EM companies that can harness the technology or supply crucial components are benefitting. AI servers, for example, have become the main growth driver for Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which is known as Foxconn. The top contributors to Bloomberg's EM stock index this year are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Tencent Holdings Ltd., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Samsung Electronics Co., SK Hynix Inc. and Xiaomi Corporation, together accounting for 37% of the index's rally. Emerging-market stocks that are highly exposed to AI have even outperformed the so-called Magnificent Seven megacap tech firms so far this year, according to equities strategists at Citigroup Inc. 'You cannot invest in emerging markets without having a sanguine and optimistic view of what this AI story can evolve into from a corporate earnings perspective,' said Kunal Desai, London-based co-portfolio manager for global emerging markets equities at GIB Asset Management. Desai said that Taiwan and South Korea will be 'central drivers' of the EM market story over the next two to three years, with Malaysia, China, India, parts of Latin America and the Middle East seeing 'disproportionate gains' due to their exposure to AI data and applications. His fund has invested in AI stocks during recent market dips, predicting that a third of emerging market returns will come from AI-related stocks in the coming years. There are signs that the momentum will continue as AI adoption accelerates across segments including cloud computing and electrical vehicles. The average estimate of forward 12-month earnings for EM tech stocks has increased 15% since the start of the year, compared to 6% for EM stocks overall. 'The share of AI contribution from the performance standpoint will only grow from here,' said Xingchen Yu, an emerging markets strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management. 'The rise of AI and tech is creating a new layer of secular growth, especially in North Asia.' The AI revolution could help EM stocks overcome a key obstacle: earnings performance. Company results have lagged forecasts every quarter since early 2022, with MSCI EM Index companies collectively missing profit expectations by more than 12%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. But firms in the AI-heavy information-technology sector have consistently met earnings projections since the fourth quarter of last year, boosting investor confidence. 'This sector has been expected to grow explosively and will continue to do so in the future,' said Young Jae Lee, senior investment manager at Pictet Asset Management Ltd. 'AI will continue to be a key sector within emerging markets.' --With assistance from Jorgelina do Rosario. More stories like this are available on
