Apple’s $34.5B R&D Produced Zero Competitive AI Models, Analysis Reveals

Apple spent $34.5 billion on R&D in fiscal 2024 — second only to Amazon globally. Yet internal testing revealed that Apple’s AI models “underperformed” against every major competitor.

The R&D Disconnect

Where the Money Went

• Apple Silicon: Industry-leading (successful)
• Services infrastructure: $109B revenue engine (successful)
• Project Titan (Car): $10B+ over decade (abandoned)
• AI/ML research: Fragmented, no frontier models

The Strategic Gap

The company that outspends nearly everyone on R&D produced zero competitive large language models. Meanwhile:

• OpenAI built GPT-4 with far less capital
• Anthropic built Claude with ~$4B total funding
• Google DeepMind built Gemini as a division

The issue isn’t money — it’s focus, culture, and strategic priority.

This analysis is part of a comprehensive report. Read the full analysis: Apple’s Post-Tim Cook AI Challenge on The Business Engineer.