Apple Made Nearly $1 Billion Last Year From a Technology It Doesn’t Even Lead — Here’s Why

Apple sat back and let everyone else fight over who could build the best AI chatbot. Then, when the dust settled, it charged those same companies fees to reach users through the App Store — pulling in nearly $1 billion last year alone just from AI apps like ChatGPT and Claude.

Mobile market intelligence firm AppMagic told The Wall Street Journal earlier this week that Apple forced big AI companies like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and xAI to pay the Apple App Store tax, or a 30% cut of subscription fees in the first year and 15% every year after. AppMagic estimated that generative AI apps paid Apple $900 million in fees in 2025.  

About 75% of that revenue came from ChatGPT, per the firm’s analysis. Apple’s revenue from AI apps jumped from about $35 million in January 2025 to a peak of $101 million in August. Since then, sales have slipped, in part because ChatGPT downloads have tapered off, the data shows.

The Journal reported that Apple is on track to cross $1 billion in AI revenue this year from App Store fees alone. Apple’s lucrative position as the gatekeeper of more than 2.5 billion active devices allows it to profit without making AI advances of its own.

Apple’s AI spending is minuscule compared to its competitors — Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft spent close to $400 billion combined on AI infrastructure in 2025. Meanwhile, Apple spent around $12.72 billion on AI for its fiscal year 2025, lagging behind its rivals. 

Apple’s total revenue for fiscal year 2025 was $416 billion, a 6.4% increase from the previous year. The tech giant saw 850 million average weekly users on the App Store globally. 

Apple’s struggle to update Siri

Apple’s quest to upgrade Siri with AI has encountered some roadblocks. Due to development challenges and testing issues, Apple delayed Siri’s AI overhaul to later this year, Bloomberg reported last month. Tests uncovered that Siri can take too long to handle requests and sometimes fails to process queries. 

The AI-powered Siri to come will have better contextual awareness, understand follow-up questions, have an enhanced ability to answer questions and act on content within apps. It will also allow users to control apps with their voice alone, per Bloomberg. 

Apple and Google revealed in January that Google’s Gemini AI will back the updated version of Siri. Gemini “will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year,” Apple and Google wrote in a joint statement. 

Apple could face competition from OpenAI

OpenAI is poised to develop new devices to compete with Apple, according to Business Insider. In May 2025, OpenAI acquired AI device startup io for $6.5 billion. Former Apple designer Jony Ive, who designed the iPhone and iPad, is the founder of io. He and his team of about 55 designers, engineers and researchers joined OpenAI as part of the acquisition. Ive and OpenAI are collaborating on a secretive new AI-powered device that could replace phones, putting their venture in direct competition with Apple. 

OpenAI reported last month that ChatGPT had hit 900 million weekly active users.