If earnings showcased one thing, it's that Big Tech's AI push is just getting started. Pictured: Illustration depicting Google's Bard.The latest round of tech earnings isn’t quite over yet, but with Apple’s numbers added to the heap last week, the most influential platforms forApple’s fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $89.5 billion beat expectations, as did other top-line figures from fellow giants Google, Meta and Amazon.
Compare that to Microsoft. Its overall $52.9 billion revenue haul and 7 percent growth paled in comparison to Alphabet’s figures, but its cloud efforts performed better. Investors were pleased to see Intelligent Cloud revenue grow 16 percent to $22 billion, including a notable 27 percent boost in Azure and other cloud services, thanks to “higher-than-expected” AI consumption, according to the company.
It’s worth noting that not all of its efforts are hits, though. Google Bard, its own version of ChatGPT, arrived earlier this year with deep flaws including factually inaccurate responses. Meanwhile Microsoft, a major backer and partner of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, released BingChat, which uses the same
In terms of buzz, generative AI leads the pack, thanks to its ability to create original works of art, text, music and more. According to Amazon, “the AWS team continues to innovate and deliver at a rapid clip, particularly in generative AI, where the combination of our custom AI chips, Amazon Bedrock the easiest and most flexible way to build and deploy generative AI applications.”
But those use cases could grow, as its Vision Pro mixed reality headset prepares to launch early next year, and more intelligent, new features could help beef up Apple Watch sales — which apparently flagged, as part of its accessories, wearables and home group, during a mixed period that saw lagging Mac and iPad sales offset by growth in iPhone revenue.
The CEO said AI will be the company’s biggest area of investment next year. That’s huge for a company that didn’t blink over losing a whopping $46.5 billion on its metaverse bet, or at least the Reality Labs division that fosters it, since 2019.