Apple Skips the AI Infrastructure War

Apple reported a record-breaking fiscal year with $114.5 billion in fourth-quarter revenue , marking a strong debut for the company under new chief executive John Ternus . Surging sales of the iPhone and Mac products drove this financial beat, though declines in iPads and wearables highlighted a mixed overall hardware performance. Despite these impressive figures, investors grew cautious due to slowing growth in China , rising memory component costs , and the absence of massive AI infrastructure spending seen at competing technology giants. Furthermore, analysts noted that the earnings beat leaned heavily on temporary tariff refunds , leaving the company's holiday-season outlook dependent on navigating persistent supply constraints and unproven artificial intelligence updates.