Apple is taking a radically different approach to the AI infrastructure war, and Wall Street's starting to wonder if it's brilliant or reckless. The iPhone maker allocated just $12.72 billion to AI-related capital expenditures in fiscal 2025, according to CNBC's analysis of recent filings. That's pocket change compared to the hyperscalers—Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta are each pouring $50 billion-plus into data centers, chips, and AI infrastructure. The question now: Can Apple's restrained, device-first strategy actually win in an era where raw compute seems to be everything?
Apple just laid bare the starkest divide in Big Tech's AI strategy. While every other tech giant scrambles to outspend each other on data centers and GPUs, Apple's staying conspicuously disciplined. The company's $12.72 billion in AI-related capital expenditures for fiscal 2025 looks almost quaint next to the infrastructure arms race unfolding across Silicon Valley.
Microsoft is expected to spend upwards of $80 billion this year on AI infrastructure alone, according to analyst estimates. Google and Amazon aren't far behind, each committing $50-75 billion to build out cloud AI capabilities and custom chip development. Meta recently announced plans to acquire 350,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, a spend that dwarfs Apple's entire AI capex budget. The hyperscalers are essentially in a Cold War-style buildup, treating AI infrastructure as existential.
But Apple's playing a different game entirely. The company's approach centers on what it calls "Apple Intelligence"—AI that runs primarily on-device rather than in the cloud. This strategy leverages Apple's custom silicon advantage, particularly the Neural Engine built into its A-series and M-series chips. Instead of building massive data centers to train frontier models, Apple's optimizing for inference at the edge, keeping user data local while delivering AI features through its installed base of 2 billion active devices.
