Apple In AI Arms Race, Looks To Revamp Lagging Mac Sales: Report

Apple Inc. AAPL is trading higher on the heels of a new overhaul plan for its sluggish Mac line.

What Happened: The laptop and desktop innovator released its first Macs with M3 chips just five months ago. And it’s already gearing up to produce the next generation, according to Bloomberg News.

This time, the technology is designed to highlight artificial intelligence.

The new chip — the M4 processor — will come in at least three main varieties and be incorporated into every Mac model.

The move is part of an effort to boost Mac sales. In the fourth quarter of 2023, sales hovered at around $7.6 billion. That’s down 34% from $11.5 billion a year earlier.

Mac revenue for all of 2023 was $29.4 billion, whereas — in 2022 — it was $40.2 billion.

See Also: OpenAI Investor Vinod Khosla Supports TikTok Divestiture, Likens App To ‘Programmable Fentanyl’ Under CCP Control

Why It Matters: Apple is in an AI arms race.

The so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks, a group that includes Apple, seem to be grabbing headlines daily due to AI ambitions.

• Microsoft MSFT: The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant is currently gearing up to showcase its ambitious “AI PCs” concept at an event next month. Microsoft’s goal is to outperform Apple’s M3-powered MacBook Air with its new AI-powered Windows laptops. 

• Nvidia NVDA: The chipmaker is constantly cited as among the hottest stocks in the tech market due to rapid AI adoption. Nvidia is up roughly 230% since this time last year. That’s primarily due to the semiconductor industry as a whole having benefited from AI hype.

• Amazon AMZN: Andrew Ng, currently the managing general partner of AI Fund, just joined Amazon’s board. His appointment comes just a couple of weeks after the Seattle e-commerce giant announced yet another multi-billion dollar investment in Anthropic, an AI startup.

• Alphabet GOOGLGOOG: The annual Google Cloud Next conference kicked off on Tuesday, in Las Vegas, with an explicit declaration that Google is placing generative AI at the center of its offerings.

• Meta Platforms META: On Wednesday, April 10, the parent company behind Facebook revealed its next-generation AI chip, the MTIA, to compete with Nvidia’s AI chips in the cloud business. Meta also plans to launch new AI models that it claims will have cognitive abilities superior to humans, according to Financial Times.

• Tesla TSLA: The Austin, Texas-based electric vehicle company is wielding AI software in the robotaxi department. Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood called it “the biggest AI project in the world.”

Apple, meanwhile, isn’t just looking to incorporate AI into Macs. The company expects to introduce AI with the 2025 iPhone 17 Pro launch. Analysts at JPMorgan responded by dropping the current price target to $210 due to declining iPhone demand in China.

Price Action: Apple closed 4.33% higher at $175.04 on Thursday.

Now Read: Apple Issues Urgent Alert To Users In 92 Countries — Beware Of Sophisticated ‘Mercenary Spyware Attack’

Image: Unsplash