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CEO of Apple Tim Cook looks at the new iPhone 16 with Siddharth Suryanarayan and Aditi Rao Hydari as Apple holds an event at the Steve Jobs Theater on its campus in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 9, 2024.

Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters

Apple’s Thursday earnings report is critical for investors because it includes the first official sales figures for the iPhone 17.

The report covers sales through the end of September, which includes a little more than a weeks worth of sales data for the latest Apple smartphones that went on sale Sept. 19. In recent weeks, Wall Street has been boosting Apple stock because it looks like the iPhone 17 is a hit based on early industry estimates.

But investors will be watching closely about what Apple says regarding demand to see if this year ends up being a “super-cycle,” or the first year of growth after iPhone revenue peaked in fiscal 2022. Analysts polled by FactSet expect that Apple surpassed that high mark in fiscal 2025.

Third-party estimates from analysts and industry researchers have signaled that iPhone sales are up this cycle, especially for the entry-level iPhone 17, which got the fastest chip and a screen with a faster refresh rate, and the iPhone 17 Pro models, which have a full aluminum frame and improved battery life.

But the newest iPhone model, the iPhone Air, doesn’t appear to be selling well so far.

“Some reports have highlighted a more muted iPhone 17 Air uptick than we believe some had initially anticipated,” Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers wrote this month.

It’s a familiar story for Apple, which sees the strongest growth when it introduces new iPhone models that expand the lineup. But since it went to a four-phone lineup in 2020, Apple has struggled with the fourth phone’s sales, which have lagged behind the basic iPhone and the Pro models. Since 2020, Apple swapped out the “Mini” iPhone for a “Plus” iPhone with a bigger screen, and now, it’s trying the “Air.”

A new iPhone Air is on display during an Apple special event at Apple headquarters on Sept. 9, 2025 in Cupertino, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

While Apple doesn’t separate sales numbers for individual devices, CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh often provide some color during earnings calls about product launches during the quarter and how much demand the company is seeing.

When Apple launched the $999 iPhone Air in September, Tim Cook called it an “iPhone that feels like a piece of the future.” Price-wise, it lands between the iPhone 17, starting at $799, and the iPhone 17 Pro, which starts at $1,099.

The iPhone Air is thinner and lighter than Apple’s other phones, but that also comes with compromises. It only has one camera lens, and its battery life is shorter than its siblings. Still, it’s the only iPhone this year with a significant design change, and reviews have been positive.

China sales could also boost the model. It didn’t go on sale in China until earlier this month, and it sold out in minutes, according to the South China Morning Post.

Still, buyers appear to prefer what they’re already familiar with.

Nikkei, a newspaper in Japan, reported last week that Apple “drastically” slashed iPhone Air component orders with its partners, but is boosting orders for its other phones.

Ming-Chi Kuo, a TF International Securities supply chain analyst known for forecasting future Apple moves, followed that report by saying that the iPhone Air had fallen short of expectations.

“This indicates that the existing Pro series and standard models already cover the majority of high-end user demand well, leaving little room to carve out new market segments and positioning,” Kuo posted on social media.

In many ways, the iPhone Air underperforming is not a sea change for the company.

Since 2020, Apple has released four new phones in the fall. But one of the four new models has consistently lagged its siblings in sales, and Apple has swapped the model out over the years to find something that works.

Before the Air, it was the iPhone “Plus,” in the middle of the lineup with the same specs as the main iPhone but with a larger screen. It was priced at $899. Apple tried that from 2022 through 2024.

Goldman Sachs analysts said that lead times, or how long Apple says it will take to ship a device on its website, suggested that the iPhone Air had similar demand to its predecessors.

“Lead times for the iPhone Air were initially below the iPhone 16 Plus, but have now surpassed those of the iPhone 16 Plus and are just below those of the iPhone 15 Plus,” wrote Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng in a note this month.

Before that, Apple’s fourth phone was the iPhone Mini, which cost less than the main iPhone when it was introduced in 2020, but consumers didn’t flock to its smaller screen.

Analysts say that the iPhone Air could be a building block towards a more diverse lineup that could include a folding iPhone. Its thin design resembles what half of a folding phone could look like, tech critics say. And the fact that the iPhone Air doesn’t have a number suggests it might not get annual updates anyway.

If Apple’s other iPhones are seeing surging sales, it might not matter to investors if the Air is lagging, especially if new designs at least keep the lineup feeling fresh.

“We believe Apple has the ability to maintain the relevance of smartphones through form factor updates to iPhone,” wrote Ng, the Goldman analyst. “For example, after the debut of the thinner iPhone Air form factor this year, Apple is expected to launch its first foldable iPhone in 2026, followed by an all-screen display iPhone in 2027.”

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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Samsung building facility with 50,000 Nvidia GPUs to automate chip manufacturing

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Samsung building facility with 50,000 Nvidia GPUs to automate chip manufacturing

Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., during the keynote address at the Nvidia GTC (GPU Technology Conference) in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025.

Kent Nishimura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Korean semiconductor giant Samsung said on Thursday that it plans to buy and deploy a cluster of 50,000 Nvidia graphic processing units to improve its chip manufacturing for mobile devices and robots.

The 50,000 Nvidia GPUs will be used to create a facility Samsung is calling an “AI Megafactory.” Samsung didn’t provide details about when the facility would be built.

It’s the latest splashy partnership for Nvidia, whose chips remain essential for building and deploying advanced artificial intelligence.

The collaboration with Samsung comes after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Tuesday announced in Washington, D.C., that Nvidia was selling collaborating with companies including Palantir, Eli Lilly, CrowdStrike and Uber.

Shortly after the speech, Huang was spotted in South Korea drinking beer with Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong and other business leaders, according to local media. Other Korean companies, including SK Group and Hyundai, are also deploying similar amounts of GPUs, Nvidia said.

“We’re working closely with the Korean government to support its ambitious leadership plans in AI,” Raymond Teh, Nvidia’s senior vice president of Asia-Pacific, said on a call with reporters on Wednesday.

The partnerships support Huang’s claim on Tuesday that Nvidia has a book of business that totals $500 billion from its current generation GPU, called Blackwell, in addition to its next-generation GPU, called Rubin.

The forecast helped boost Nvidia’s stock, making the company the first to reach a market cap of $5 trillion.

On Thursday, Nvidia representatives said they will work with Samsung to adapt the Korean company’s chipmaking lithography platform to work with Nvidia’s GPUs. That process will results in 20 times better performance for Samsung, the Nvidia representatives said. Samsung will also use Nvidia’s simulation software called Omniverse. Known for its mobile phones, Samsung also said it would use the Nvidia chips to run its own AI models for its devices.

In addition to being a partner and customer, Samsung is also a key supplier for Nvidia.

Samsung makes the kind of high-performance memory Nvidia uses in large quantities, alongside its AI chips, called high bandwidth memory. Samsung said it will work with Nvidia to tweak its fourth-generation HBM memory for use in AI chips.

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Google to offer Gemini AI for free to over 500 million Jio users as global firms double down on India

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Google to offer Gemini AI for free to over 500 million Jio users as global firms double down on India

The Google AI Studio application is displayed on a mobile phone with Google in the background, in this photo illustration in Brussels, Belgium, on October 26, 2025.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Google will offer its Gemini AI service for free to over 500 million Reliance Jio users in India, as global artificial intelligence firms double down on acquiring customers in the country.

The U.S. tech giant revealed Thursday that it had signed a pact with Reliance Intelligence, a joint venture between Reliance Industries and Meta, to provide Google’s AI Pro plan, which includes Gemini 2.5 Pro, expanded access to NotebookLM for study and research, and 2 TB of cloud storage, among other things.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, said his firm aims to make India “AI-empowered” through collaborations with strategic and long-term partners such as Google. Reliance Jio is India’s largest telecom services operator.

Google services, worth 35,100 rupees per user ($396), will have a staggered roll out with early access for 18- to 25-year-old users on unlimited Jio 5G plans for for 18 months. Eventually they will be made available for free to the company’s entire customer base.

“I’m excited for how this partnership will help expand access to AI across India,” said Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google and Alphabet.

There are about 377 million Gen Zs in India, driving $860 billion in consumer spending in the country, and that is set to rise to $2 trillion by 2035, according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group.

India has the highest number of users globally across social media platforms such as Facebook (350 million-plus), Instagram (413.8 million), video app YouTube (over 467 million) while messaging app WhatsApp has over 500 million users, making it a key market for digital services.

In July, the second largest Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel partnered with Perplexity to offer its 360 million customers free access to Perplexity Pro, which is priced at $200 per year globally.

Airtel and Perplexity followed this up with intensive campaigns on social media platforms, enlisting leading Indian influencers who posted reels promoting the use-cases for the free AI tool.

Indian telecom market is dominated by Jio and Airtel and partnerships with these telecom operators offer the opportunity for companies to expand the reach of apps and digital tools, making them available to a mass audience.

On Tuesday, OpenAI reportedly said it would make its ChatGPT Go plan free for users in India for a year, starting Nov. 4. The offer was launched in August for 399 rupees per month, and was among the most affordable subscription plans from OpenAI.

The company is rapidly expanding its presence in India, its second largest market, and plans to set up a 1 gigawatt data center in the country.

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Disney content to go dark on YouTubeTV after contract talks collapse

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Disney content to go dark on YouTubeTV after contract talks collapse

Photo illustration of the YouTube TV logo displayed on a smartphone, with the YouTube logo in the background.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Content from The Walt Disney Company, including channels like ABC and ESPN, was removed from Google‘s YouTube TV on Thursday after the two companies failed to renew a streaming contract. 

“Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to reach a fair deal, and starting today, Disney programming will not be available on YouTube TV,” the platform said in a statement Thursday.

More than 20 channels, including ABC and ESPN, and Disney content recordings would be removed from YouTube TV, the company said.

The two sides had been engaged in negotiations but were unable to reach a new distribution agreement before their existing contract expired Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. The mass media and entertainment conglomerate was the first to warn about the potential content removal last week.

In a Thursday statement on its official blog, YouTube argued Disney had “used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers,” and that Disney was now following through on that threat.

“We will not agree to terms that disadvantage our members while benefiting Disney’s own live TV products,” YouTube TV said in a post on its help center webpage. Disney’s live TV offerings include Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.

“We know how disruptive it is to lose channels you enjoy, and we’re committed to continuing to work with Disney to reach an agreement,” YouTube said in its statement, adding that if the content is unavailable for an extended period of time, the company will offer members a $20 credit. 

YouTube TV pays broadcasters to stream their channels and has been engaged in several tense negotiations over contract renewals in recent months.

Last month,  content was nearly removed from YouTube TV before the companies reached an agreement after a temporary extension, preventing shows like “Sunday Night Football” and “America’s Got Talent” from being pulled.

The recent clash between Disney and YouTube has an added twist, after YouTube hired former Disney distribution executive Justin Connolly earlier this year, prompting Disney to file a breach-of-contract lawsuit.

Connolly has recused himself from the discussions, CNBC previously reported, according to the people familiar with the process.

YouTube is the top U.S. media distributor by audience engagement, capturing over 13% of TV watch-time in July, according to Nielsen. It is also on track to be the biggest media company by revenue in 2025, beating Disney, analysts at MoffettNathanson told CNBC.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.

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