Apple sees biggest sales jump in 4 years, powered by ‘staggering’ iPhone demand

Apple’s iPhone 17 was a big seller over the holiday period, with sales jumping by nearly a quarter for the tech giant.

CEO Tim Cook, in an interview with FOX Business, called the results “staggering.”

Apple pulled in $143.8 billion in revenue in its fiscal first quarter, up 16% from the prior year. Cook said it was a record sales quarter for North America and in China, where it has lost market share to local competitors in recent years.

NEW APPLE IPHONE 17 GOES ON SALE WORLDWIDE

Apple still pays a 10% tariff on products shipped from China, and Cook said the tariff costs came in largely in line with the company’s guided costs of $1.4 billion for the quarter.

When it comes to AI spending, Cook said Apple is “open to acquisitions” and not married to a certain size company.

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Apple on Thursday announced the purchase of Israeli AI audio company Q.ai.

“We see lots of benefits to the acquisition,” Cook said. “We continue to look at the market,” meaning there might be more announcements in the future.

On the AI arms race, with both Microsoft and Meta announcing AI spending jumps of 66% and as much as 87%, respectively, Cook said Apple “is spending quite a bit as well” but declined to give a specific number.

Recently, there have been numerous reports that Cook might be taking a step back from his leadership role and planning to hand over the reins to someone else.

“I love my job, and part of my job is to make sure that there is great succession within the company,” Cook said, adding he takes that part of his job seriously.

Cook also confirmed that the Apple AI assistant, Siri, will be powered by Google’s Gemini and will launch later this year. When asked if he is choosing Google over OpenAI in the AI race, Cook said he “sees it differently” and views it as more of a “collaboration” that will be the “foundation of our future models.”