Apple is preparing to spend, but not necessarily on AI
Apple last week nixed its long-held “net cash neutral” target, a move analysts see as giving the company more flexibility to make massive infrastructure investments or acquisitions. Naturally, as AI is the only thing that seems to matter in tech these days, commentators rushed to speculate on potential acquisition targets in the AI space. The thing is, this may not be about AI. Now that Apple has confirmed John Ternus as its next CEO, the market can stop treating the company’s cash shift as speculative and start treating it as strategic. Ternus, a hardware‑first leader by background, understands the value of services and has pledged to expand Apple’s services business. Services, services, services The great thing about services is that they provide the company with a solid and predictable revenue stream to insulate it from fluctuations in product-driven business. We’ve seen this in the last few years, with Apple’s dramatically climbing services income acting as a cushion against slow