Apple's smaller acquisitions could shape faster and more private AI in future devices

During Apple's Q3 2025 earnings call on 4 August, CEO Tim Cook disclosed that the company has acquired roughly seven small firms this year, describing each as aimed at advancing its technology roadmap. "We're very open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap… the ones that we have acquired thus far this year are small in nature," he told analysts, according to a transcript published by Six Colors.

While Apple has not disclosed the identities of the companies or the technologies they bring, CFO Kevan Parekh stated during the Q3 2025 earnings call that capital expenditure is increasing for data centres and for Apple's Private Cloud Compute system, both of which are tied to the company's artificial intelligence strategy. Paired with targeted acquisitions, these investments indicate a continued emphasis on enhancing the Neural Engine at the core of Apple Silicon.

The Neural Engine already handles AI-based tasks on Apple devices, such as image enhancement, live translation and updates to Siri. Adding specialised technology from smaller acquisitions could improve processing speed, reduce power consumption and strengthen privacy by limiting reliance on remote servers.

Apple has previously taken a similar approach. The acquisition of PrimeSense in 2013 contributed to the launch of Face ID, while its 2012 purchase of AuthenTec provided the fingerprint recognition technology behind Touch ID. In both cases, the hardware changes were only visible when they surfaced in new features. The combination of targeted acquisitions and growing AI infrastructure investment suggests that Apple may be enabling more advanced on-device AI capabilities in future hardware.