Apple Spent $2.2 Billion on CapEx While Amazon Spent $77.3 Billion

Apple spent $2.2 billion on capital expenditures last quarter. Amazon spent $77.3 billion over the same period, and Alphabet spent $51.4 billion. Those figures, disclosed in Apple's fiscal fourth-quarter results, frame the company's AI strategy: it monetizes other companies' models without funding cloud infrastructure on their scale.

The company posted its best-ever fiscal year for revenue and earnings per share. iPhone revenue rose 17.5% year over year to a September-quarter record of $57.6 billion. Mac revenue climbed 24% to $10.8 billion, its highest level in four years.

Shares still fell in premarket trading Tuesday. Apple warned that rising memory costs would squeeze profit margins in the holiday quarter.

How central is AI to the results?

AI came up 45 times on the quarterly earnings call — a record, according to financial research platform AlphaSense. That count exceeded even the call in June 2024, when Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence and plans for a revamped Siri.

Apple has not disclosed how much of its revenue growth reflects AI demand versus higher prices. Executives clearly see the technology as a sales driver. CFO Kevan Parekh cited a "wide range of ways that AI can contribute to revenue growth over time."

"On the product side, we feel AI offers a compelling reason for customers to upgrade and switch in order to get the latest capabilities," Parekh said. "And we also feel there's opportunities across third-party apps and partnerships as well as first-party opportunities."

"We see tremendous opportunity in AI," John Ternus said on his first earnings call as CEO.

Apple has more than 2.5 billion active devices. That installed base gives it an enormous audience for whatever AI services emerge, whether its own or those of competitors.

What is Apple actually building?

Unlike its Big Tech peers, Apple is not pouring comparable sums into infrastructure. Its approach combines on-device processing, its own servers, and outside AI technology. Siri AI runs on models developed with Google's Gemini technology, and Apple reportedly plans to let users choose among outside AI providers for features such as writing tools and image generation.

The CapEx comparison covers companywide spending, not just AI, and excludes some AI expenses at each company. Apple's operating expenses rose 21% to $19.2 billion as it increased R&D spending, including on AI. Siri AI's cloud costs will appear in services cost of sales, and those costs could grow with usage.

Parekh said it is too early to predict how many requests will require servers rather than on-device processing. Apple's capital spending remains a fraction of its peers' regardless.

Siri AI reached customers only recently. Apple launched the revamped assistant in beta for US English users in September and expanded it to French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish in October.

How does Apple turn AI usage into revenue?

Ternus said features relying on server-side models, including Siri AI and intelligent photo editing, will carry usage limits. Customers who need more capacity "will be able to purchase expanded access in the future," he said.

"In the beginning, iCloud tiers were largely about storage, but we've been adding more capabilities and features to it," Ternus said.

Apple also benefits when customers buy its hardware to run AI locally, including models built by other companies. Ternus said the Mac is "having an AI moment all its own." Mac Mini and Mac Studio, he said, "are pushing the boundaries of local, private AI, giving users the ability to do things once considered impossible."

The company offered two named examples:

• Gap runs AI entirely on Mac Mini computers for loss prevention across hundreds of stores, avoiding cloud token costs for those tasks.
• Christie's runs local models on Mac Studio computers to improve workflows including pricing estimates.

The Mac Mini has built a new constituency among developers and hobbyists seeking an affordable way to run models locally. Earlier this year, then-CEO Tim Cook said customer recognition of the Mac Mini and Mac Studio's AI and agentic capabilities was happening faster than Apple predicted, driving higher-than-expected demand.

Apple also collects fees when customers subscribe to someone else's AI. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that Apple was on pace to bring in more than $1 billion in App Store fees from generative AI apps in 2026, according to analytics firm AppMagic.

Does the fee pipeline face pressure?

That revenue depends on customers paying through Apple's system. OpenAI has begun directing potential subscribers to pay through its website instead of the App Store, bypassing Apple's commissions, The Wall Street Journal reported. Apple's position lets it profit from competitors' AI, but those competitors have a clear incentive to route around its fees.

Apple still holds multiple ways to get paid for AI: it can sell the computer, collect a subscription commission, and eventually charge for more of its own services. It does not have to build every model or fund infrastructure at its rivals' scale. Whether memory costs, OpenAI's payment workaround, or unpriced Siri cloud usage erode that position will shape the next several quarters.