Apple’s investment in more AI firms than any of its major rivals, and a marked increased in related job ads, backs up claims that Siri will see significant improvements at WWDC 2024.
“[Apple is] getting ready to do some significant M&A,” Daniel Ives at Wedbush Securities told the publication. “I’d be shocked if they don’t do a sizeable AI deal this year, because there’s an AI arms race going on, and Apple is not going to be on the outside looking in.”
Listing both equity and add-on investments, the Financial Times says that Apple has made 21 such investments in firms since 2017. Over the same period, Accenture made 19, while better-known AI rivals Microsoft and Meta made 12 and 11 investments respectively.
It also cites Morgan Stanley as reporting that almost half of Apple’s current job ads include some reference to AI, Machine Learning, or Deep Learning. That’s a marked increase from Morgan Stanley’s November 2023 report, when it said that since 2015 “AI-related job postings at Apple have risen from 5% of total Apple job postings to ~20% today.”
This story originally appeared on Appleinsider
