Apple CEO Tim Cook arrives for an official State Dinner in honor of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2023.
Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
The most powerful technology companies simply cannot stop talking about artificial intelligence, and in particular, the “generative AI” flavor that can create human-like text, images, and code.
During calls after this week’s earnings reports, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and his team said “AI” 66 times. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and his execs said it 47 times. And on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook executive team said the magic phrase 42 times, according to a CNBC analysis of transcripts.
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But Apple barely talks about artificial intelligence, and you shouldn’t expect to hear much about it during the company’s earnings next week.
Its sober approach to the new technology contrasts deeply with its rivals, which are stoking excitement and elevating expectations every chance they get.
During May’s Apple earnings call, CEO Tim Cook only said “AI” twice, and that was in response to a question. During Apple’s two-hour software launch event in June, it never said the phrase, although it announced several new features powered with AI.
Apple execs instead use the phrase “machine learning,” which is more popular with academics and practitioners. Apple execs also prefer to talk about what software does for the user, such as organizing their photos, improving their typing, or filling out fields in a PDF, as opposed to the technology that makes all that possible.
Apple’s approach to AI as a core underlying component instead of the future of computing represents a way to present the technology to its consumers. Apple’s AI works in the background. And the company doesn’t yell about it the way some of the other companies do because it doesn’t need to.
Microsoft, Google and Meta are rallying everyone around AI, even though the future is murky
Google launched Bard AI, it’s own chatbot to rival Microsoft and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images
A closer look at executive remarks this week from earnings calls shows that while Meta, Microsoft, and Google are eager to sell the shovels for the AI gold rush, such as cloud services and developer tools, it’s still unclear how AI could change their most important products and when it could start bolstering balance sheets.
Google, for example, has announced its plans to revamp its search engine using an AI model called Search Generative Experience. Microsoft’s biggest new initiative is a $30-per-month “Copilot” subscription that integrates generated text or code from partner OpenAI’s ChatGPT into Word, Powerpoint, and other apps. Meta’s most recent investment in AI technology is its own large language model it calls LLaMA, which could underpin new kinds of social media chatbots or automatically generate online ads.
Meanwhile, Apple still makes the bulk of its money from iPhones, which generated $51.3 billion of its $94.84 billion in revenue during the company’s second fiscal quarter. Why talk a big AI game?
Besides, mega-cap tech companies signaled to investors earlier this week in earnings calls that the rollout of AI products could take a while.
In Microsoft’s case, Nadella tempered investor expectations for Copilot, signaling that growth would take time, and said that its rollout would be “gradual.”
It could take until next year before investors understand how the Copilot subscription affects the company’s revenue. “In the second half of the next fiscal year, we’ll start getting some of the real revenue signal from it,” Nadella said.
Google and Pichai say that the company’s text-generating AI models will make its search engine better and could even answer questions that normal Google search can’t. From a business perspective, Pichai said, generative AI used for creating and serving ads will “supercharge” the company’s existing ads business, and there are “opportunities” for new kinds of ads with AI-generated search.
But Pichai still said it’s still “early days” for the new AI-powered search, and later, when pressed about how SGE might increase usage of the search engine, and therefore increase revenue, he said the company was experimenting.
“I think we are definitely headed in the right direction, and we can see it in our metrics and the feedback we’re getting from our users as well,” Pichai said.
Zuckerberg was effusive about AI technology and its applications in virtual reality, ad targeting, and recommending content from accounts users don’t follow.
He was particularly optimistic about a concept called “AI agents,” where software would be able to message business customers automatically without a human involved, or act as a coach, or be a personal assistant.
Still, Zuckerberg admitted he didn’t know how many people would use the new AI features.
“The reality is, we just don’t know how quickly these will scale,” Zuckerberg said. He said Meta was debating internally how much it should spend on servers for AI.
The peak of the hype cycle
Microsoft – Bing seen on mobile with ChatGPT4 on screen, seen in this photo illustration. On 12 March 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.
Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images
The slow rollout of revenue-generating AI products from Big Tech matters because many people in the technology industry believe that new foundational technologies go through a “hype cycle” based on research from analysis firm Gartner.
When a new technology is introduced, according to the hype cycle model, it gains lots of attention and investment as it reaches a “peak of inflated expectations.” But, as the deployment of the tech moves slower than initially expected, enthusiasm and investment dry up, in a “trough of disillusionment,” before maturing and becoming productive.
For now, shovel-makers and people seeking investment capital are benefiting from the AI boom. Nvidia stock has risen 220% so far in 2023 as investors have realized its GPUs are essential for the technology. Venture capital investment in AI startups has boomed, and many of those dollars are going to Nvidia for computer capacity, and to cloud providers for access to AI models.
But if everyday consumer applications for AI don’t catch on, then many AI companies could slip into the trough of disillusionment again. Analysts found earlier this month, for example, that downloads for OpenAI’s iPhone app slowed earlier this month after launching in May.
Some analysts are starting to understand that an investment opportunity based on new AI products won’t be immediate and that the costs could stack up.
“We cautioned investors that that process of translating early demand to large-scale implementations and recognized revenue will be a multi-year trend rather than an instantaneous flip of a switch,” JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy wrote this week.
“We recommend investors invest elsewhere until Metaverse, Reels, Threads, Quest and Generative AI investments become accretive (if ever) to META’s [return on invested capital], rather than dilutive,” Needham’s Laura Martin wrote in a note.
UBS analyst Lloyd Walmsley wrote this week that Generative AI was still an “overhang” over Google.
“Management expressed optimism around the ability to solve for ‘deeper and broader’ use cases with Search Generative Experience (SGE), but we do not believe the company is out of the woods with management still describing monetization as having a ‘number of experiments in flight including (for) ads,'” Walmsley wrote.
Apple’s a product company
Apple iPhones are displayed at an Apple store in Chicago on Nov. 28, 2022.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
When Apple reports its earnings next week, analysts will likely press it on its plans for AI, given the industry-wide obsession, and especially after a recent Bloomberg report that said the company was developing a ChatGPT-like language model internally.
Last month, Apple announced new iPhone keyboard software that uses the same transformers architecture as GPT, showing that it has substantial internal development of AI models. It just doesn’t like to talk about products that aren’t out on the market yet to stoke investor anticipation.
Apple is unlikely to discuss AI at length next week as its mega-cap rivals did this week. During Apple’s earnings call in May, when asked about the technology, Cook quickly moved the conversation back to the company’s products and features.
“We view AI as huge and we’ll continue weaving it in our products on a very thoughtful basis,” Cook said.
Travelers walk past a sign pointing toward the Uber rideshare vehicle pickup area at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on February 8, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday suedUber, accusing the ride-hailing and delivery company of deceptive billing and cancellation practices tied to its subscription service.
The agency claims Uber violated the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act by providing misleading information about its Uber One subscription service, failing to provide a simple way for users to cancel their membership, and charging them without their consent.
“Americans are tired of getting signed up for unwanted subscriptions that seem impossible to cancel,” FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said in a statement. “The Trump-Vance FTC is fighting back on behalf of the American people.”
Uber spokesperson Noah Edwardsen said in a statement that the company is “disappointed” by the FTC’s complaint, but that it’s confident the courts will rule in its favor.
“Uber One’s sign-up and cancellation processes are clear, simple, and follow the letter and spirit of the law,” Edwardsen said. “Uber does not sign up or charge consumers without their consent, and cancellations can now be done anytime in-app and take most people 20 seconds or less.”
Uber One, launched in 2021, costs $9.99 a month or $96 a year and offers perks like fee-free delivery and discounts on some ride bookings, delivery and pickup orders.
In its complaint, the FTC argues that Uber advertises its subscription as offering “savings of $25 a month” without calculating the monthly cost of its membership. It also accuses Uber of charging consumers before their billing date.
When users try to cancel their Uber One subscription, Uber makes it “extremely difficult,” while some users are told to contact customer service representatives to proceed with their cancellation, but are given no way to contact them, the FTC alleged. Some users claim that Uber charged them for another billing cycle after they cancelled their Uber One membership, the agency said in its complaint.
The complaint marks the first FTC action against a major tech company since President Donald Trump began his second term in January. The FTC has several ongoing lawsuits against tech’s megacap companies, including Meta, Google and Amazon. Some cases were brought during President Joe Biden’s presidency, but Trump’s FTC was aggressive during his first term, most notably going after Meta.
Ferguson told CNBC last month that the agency will continue to closely scrutinize major tech companies.
“I’ve said since day one Big Tech is one of the main priorities of the Trump-Vance FTC,” Ferguson said. “It’s one of the reasons the president appointed me to this position.”
Uber and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi each reportedly donated $1 million to President Trump’s inaugural fund, joining a lengthy roster of tech companies and executives attempting to cozy up to the incoming administration.
Khosrowshahi followed that up in January in an interview at the Wall Street Journal’s Journal House in Davos.
“We want to engage with every government we are a part of,” Khosrowshahi said, adding that a “diversity of voices” in government can be a positive, the Journal reported.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 10, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
Elon Musk is looking to put “proper value” on his artificial intelligence startup xAI, sources told CNBC’s David Faber.
The comments came during a call with xAI investors last week, sources familiar with the matter told Faber. While the Tesla CEO didn’t explicitly address an upcoming funding round, the sources interpreted the comments as a sign that xAI is getting set up for a significant capital raise in the near future.
CNBC was unable to confirm that the company is actively looking at a raise.
The sources also said the company discussed revenue at a potential run rate of $1 billion or more on the call.
The raise would mark another significant milestone for xAI just months after CNBC reported that the company was raising up to $6 billion at a $50 billion valuation to buy up 100,000 Nvidia chips. The funding was reportedly a combination of $5 billion from Middle East sovereign funds and $1 billion from other investors.
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Musk announced the AI startup in July 2023. At the time, the company said its goal was to “understand the true nature of the universe.” xAI launched a chatbot called Grok last year, which it claimed at the time had debuted with two months of training and real-time internet knowledge. xAI is looking to use the chatbot to compete against other AI chatbots, including Anthropic’s Claude and ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which Musk helped launch before leaving the project in 2018.
In March, Musk said that the startup had merged with social media platform X in an all-stock deal valuing the combined entity at $80 billion. Musk said that X had been valued at $33 billion.
“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined,” Musk wrote in a post on X announcing the merger. “Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent.”
Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Musk has focused much of his time on the Department of Government Efficiency, leaving questions about the stability of his companies as Tesla shares have fallen over 40% this year. His presence on the call could be a signal that he’s re-focusing on his business entities.
Guests including Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk attend the inauguration of Donald J. Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the U.S.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson | Getty Images
As tech’s megacap companies enter first-quarter earnings season this week, get ready to hear one word on repeat: uncertainty.
President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to tariffs has created market chaos this month — including five days of massive moves for the Nasdaq — as investors try to gauge the future impact on revenue and earnings for American companies that rely on imports.
Beyond the increase in costs are the follow-on effects, such as the likely drop-off in ad spending that comes with tighter budgets and the potential slowdown in consumer spending that could result from higher prices and rising unemployment.
Trump’s tariffs face almost universal disapproval in the corporate world, which became clear as trillions of dollars in value evaporated in a matter of days, and some of the president’s most vocal supporters, including Elon Musk, voiced opposition.
Beyond being bad for business, the tariff picture changes by the day, making it almost impossible for companies to plan for the future when considering where to manufacture, whether to continue hiring and how aggressively to market products.
On April 9, following four days of market turmoil, Trump dropped tariffs to 10% for most trade partners (while increasing the levy on China to 145%) for 90 days to allow negotiations with those countries. Since then, the Trump administration has signaled that phones, computers and chips would be exempted from the new tariffs, but the president then added to the confusion by casting doubt on the duration of the exemptions, which were viewed as a boon most notably for Apple.
When Tesla kicks off tech earnings on Tuesday, followed by Alphabet on Thursday, executive teams will likely face forward-looking questions that may be difficult to answer.
Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple are all slated to report results next week. Chipmaker Nvidia reports in late May.
As of Thursday’s close, the Nasdaq was down 16% for the year and 6% in April. The first quarter was the worst for the index in almost three years.
Here are some of the key issues facing each tech megacap, in order of when they report:
Tesla
A Tesla car showroom stands doused in blue paint following vandalism by activists of the group New Generation on March 31, 2025 in Berlin, Germany.
Omer Messinger | Getty Images
Tesla’s Tuesday report lands against a murky backdrop for the electric vehicle maker.
The stock is down 40% for the year so far after closing out its worst quarter since 2022 in March. The big story has been Musk’s many distractions outside of Tesla, most notably his work slashing the federal government as part of the Trump administration.
Tariffs are also a problem, as the company relies on suppliers in Mexico and China for items like automotive glass, printed circuit boards and battery cells, among other parts essential for the production of its cars. Tesla has sought an exemption from the U.S. Trade Representative for equipment imported from China that it uses in its factories.
On the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in January, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja cautioned shareholders that the Trump administration’s tariffs would have an “impact on our business and profitability.”
For the first quarter, analysts are projecting revenue growth of less than 1% from a year earlier, followed by a slight year-over-year slippage in the second quarter. Investors will want to see if Musk can provide any clarity on how costly tariffs could be going forward. Musk has made his thoughts on the matter fairly clear, calling Trump’s top trade advisor and tariff proponent Peter Navarro a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
Tesla’s business was already under pressure before tariffs and uncertainty roiled markets. In early April, the company reported 337,000 vehicle deliveries in the first quarter, a 13% decline from the previous year. To win over customers in the face of a Musk-induced backlash, and to get customers to buy inventory cars when a new Model Y is on the way, the company had to offer an array of incentives and discounts in the first quarter.
Piper Sandler analysts last week revised their Tesla price target lower, saying after the first-quarter whiff on deliveries that “gross margin is probably trending near multi-year lows.”
Alphabet
Alphabet Inc. and Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during the inauguration of a Google Artificial Intelligence (AI) hub in Paris on February 15, 2024.
Alain Jocard | AFP | Getty Images
Google parent Alphabet faces an online ad market that’s on edge due to concerns about how Trump’s tariffs will affect the economy and business spending.
A note last week from Piper Sandler pointed to fears of an 18% impact to growth forecasts for the 2025 global ad market. Chinese discount e-commerce apps Temu and Shein, which have been big advertisers in the U.S. in recent years, are of notable concern, and Temu has already pulled way back on spending.
Retail represents at least 21% of Google ad revenue, according to estimates by Oppenheimer & Co., which said that Meta has even more exposure to ad pullbacks.
Investors are equally concerned about the cloud business, as Alphabet is a massive spender on imported data center infrastructure, and is going even bigger to keep up with the AI boom. The company has said it plans to spend $75 billion this year, mostly going toward servers and data centers to power AI and its cloud business.
It’s unclear whether Google will adjust that figure, but such a move may be necessary. Mizuho analysts wrote on April 8 that roughly 25% of Google channel partner customers have reduced spending on the company’s cloud, and “we expect that mix to increase to 50% from elevated customer hesitation” after the tariff announcement.
Though Alphabet doesn’t make a large chunk of its revenue from consumer hardware, it does produce its Pixel and Fitbit products abroad and runs its services on the most popular phone carriers. Pixel products are manufactured in India, after the company began diversifying its supply chain away from China.
Meta
(L-R) UFC CEO Dana White and Mark Zuckerberg attend the UFC 300 event at T-Mobile Arena on April 13, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jeff Bottari | UFC | Getty Images
Meta has a small hardware business, focused largely on selling virtual reality devices. That’s not the biggest concern for investors.
Rather, like with Google, it’s the potential impact of the tariffs on the economy and the willingness of businesses to spend on digital ads. In Meta’s case, that means ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta acknowledged the negative impact of a U.S.-China trade dispute in its latest annual report, noting that an action “that reduces or eliminates our China-based advertising revenue” would “adversely affect” financial results. Meta’s China revenue was $18.35 billion in 2024, representing a little over 11% of total sales.
Analysts say Temu and Shien represent the bulk of Meta’s China sales. Bank of America analysts wrote in a recent note that Meta could face “3% revenue exposure to Temu and Shein in the US” due to the tariffs. While the “tariff situation still remains fluid,” the firm said companies will reduce online ad spending due to a weakening economy. The analysts reduced their estimate for 2025 revenue by 4.4% to $179.8 billion.
Oppenheimer analysts wrote in a recent note that the China trade war will hurt Meta more than Google, because it’s “more exposed to discretionary spending” and China. The firm warned that companies are more likely to cut ad spending on social media than search, based on a March survey of advertisers from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Where costs could be a concern for Meta is in the data center, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year that the company would spend $60 billion to $65 billion in capex in 2025, calling it a “defining year for AI.” The bulk of that infrastructure has to be imported from Asia, and analysts will have plenty of questions for the company about how much more it will have to spend to continue its AI advancements.
Microsoft
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella waves during an event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Microsoft on April 4, 2025 in Redmond, Washington. The company also gave an update on Copilot, its AI tool.
Stephen Brashear | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Microsoft makes PCs and video game consoles, but it derives most of its revenue from selling software. The company buys lots of hardware to operate cloud services for its clients, transactions that are subject to significantly higher costs due to tariffs.
In early January, Microsoft announced it was aiming to spend more than $80 billion this fiscal year on data centers capable of handling artificial intelligence workloads.
Where investors may be most concerned for Microsoft is in the company’s expansive customer base and whether Trump’s trade policies will lead clients to cut spending on products.
“There’s not a direct tariff impact, and so what we talk about is indirect,” said Brent Bracelin, an analyst at Piper Sandler. He recommends buying Microsoft shares.
Recent surveys indicate that software sales cycles are lengthening and interest in buying new software is waning, Bracelin said. Other analysts have said Microsoft, along with Salesforce, are among the software vendors that are best able to handle higher tariffs.
“We see MSFT and CRM as two of the names best positioned to weather this macro storm as they are already back at/near 2022 trough levels and can adjust spending/capex levels for this ‘new reality’ if needed to preserve” earnings and cash, Evercore ISI analysts wrote in a note earlier this month.
Amazon
Attendees walk through an exposition hall at AWS re:Invent, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, in Las Vegas on Dec. 3, 2024.
Noah Berger | Getty Images
Amazon’s position as an e-commerce juggernaut gives it hefty exposure to potential tariff headwinds, and not just because of consumer spending.
More than 60% of Amazon’s sales are from items sold by third-party merchants, and many of those sellers source their products from China. The remaining 40% comes from vendors Amazon purchases from directly.
Within days of Trump’s new tariffs, Amazon canceled some of those merchandise orders from vendors in China, while Amazon sellers have said they’re considering raising the price of their products.
Investors will be listening for any commentary around the impact of tariffs on its online stores business, especially as Amazon’s summer Prime Day discount event nears. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC last week the company will work to keep prices low on its website, but that sellers may need to “pass the cost” of tariffs on to consumers.
“Amazon is probably the best-positioned company in retail and e-commerce to take advantage of the chaotic situation from tariffs and shifting global supply chains,” Barclays analysts, who have a buy rating on Amazon, wrote in a recent report. “The pandemic was a precursor of this, during which Amazon was able to gain share and move quicker than peers despite its massive size.”
The company’s advertising unit could be “pressured more if trade wars get worse,” analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald, who also recommend buying the stock, wrote in a note on April 15. Most of Amazon’s ad revenue comes from sponsored product ads that appear in search results on its website. Businesses could pull back on their ad spend as they look to conserve costs or reduce traffic to products sourced from China.
And like the other hyperscalers, Amazon has all of the potential added costs associated with tariffs on advanced chips and other data center equipment, depending on what products end up getting exempted. Amazon Web Services is the market leader in cloud infrastructure, ahead of Microsoft and Google.
Apple
People shop at an Apple store in Grand Central Station in New York on April 4, 2025.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Apple has outsized exposure to Trump’s tariffs, as the company generates about three-quarters of its revenue from selling devices that are mostly manufactured in Asia. While Apple got an apparent reprieve when the Trump administration suspended tariffs on computers from China earlier this month, the company still faces significant uncertainty with the possibility of another Trump shift.
Apple has tried to hedge its China risk in recent years, bolstering manufacturing capacity in countries including Vietnam and India. Officials in India said that Apple loaded planes full of iPhones made in the country and sent them to the U.S. in response to tariffs.
Wall Street has been dumping shares of the iPhone maker, sending the stock down 8% in March and another 11% so far this month, a recognition of how damaging long-term tariffs would likely be on Apple’s business.
CEO Tim Cook, along with many of his tech counterparts, has tried cozying up to President Trump, donating to his inauguration in January and attending the event in Washington, D.C. But investors have yet to hear how Cook and the rest of the management team plan to deal with the increased costs, how the company is managing inventory and how it will all add up to affect margins.
Nvidia
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers the keynote address during the Nvidia GTC 2025 at SAP Center on March 18, 2025 in San Jose, California.
Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) are key to the AI infrastructure buildouts across the tech industry. While semiconductors have a tariff exemption, many of the AI servers that have driven the recent boom have been shipped to the U.S. as mostly finished computers, putting them at risk of tariffs.
Since an AI server can cost upwards of $50,000, even small tariffs could have a big impact on costs. And the almost tenfold increase in Nvidia’s stock price over the past two calendar years has baked into it an assumption that sales and profit margins will keep inflating.
Investors will want to hear from CEO Jensen Huang about his relationship with Trump, given the potential importance of that dynamic.
Nvidia said last week that it would produce its “AI supercomputers” in Texas, days after Huang met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Nvidia also said it would buy and package chip production services from companies in Arizona. The company said it would “produce” a half-trillion dollars in AI infrastructure over the next four years.
The White House praised the move, and said in a press release that Nvidia was leading an “American-made chips boom.” Nvidia’s plans for U.S. production will rely on the company getting exceptions for many of the parts it will need to build the computers.
Nvidia’s concern with the government isn’t just about tariffs. The company said last week that it will take a quarterly charge of about $5.5 billion tied to exporting H20 graphics processing units to China and other destinations.
During President Joe Biden’s administration, the U.S. restricted AI chip exports and then updated the rules to prevent the sale of more advanced AI processors. The H20 is an AI chip for China that was designed to comply with U.S. export restrictions. It generated an estimated $12 billion to $15 billion in revenue in 2024.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny, Jennifer Elias, Jonathan Vanian, Jordan Novet, Annie Palmer and Kif Leswing contributed to this report.