Apple 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.”
Apple’s “rarely first” strategy targets AI dominance despite late start
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.”
