JAKARTA - In the midst of the assumption that Apple is lagging behind in the artificial intelligence race, the company has found another way to stay profitable. The tech giant is projected to rake in more than $1 billion - around Rp16.9 trillion - by 2026 from third-party AI app commissions on the App Store.
The report, quoted from The Wall Street Journal, shows a significant spike throughout 2025. In January, Apple earned around 35 million US dollars from generative AI apps. That figure jumped to 101 million US dollars in August, with an annual total estimated at 900 million US dollars.
The majority of the revenue was contributed by ChatGPT, which accounted for about 75 percent of the total commission. Meanwhile, Grok is far behind with a contribution of around 5 percent.
Interestingly, both apps are free to download. However, Apple still gets revenue from in-app subscription schemes, where the company takes a cut of every user transaction.
This phenomenon shows Apple's unique position in the AI industry. While other companies are racing to build expensive models and infrastructure, Apple is acting as a "gatekeeper" of distribution - taking a share of growth without having to bear the cost of major development.
Data shows Apple's spending on AI is relatively stable, ranging from $2 to $4 billion a year since 2020. The figure is far below that of its competitors. Amazon, for example, increased its AI spending from around $4 billion in 2020 to more than $40 billion in 2026.
Meanwhile, Microsoft reportedly poured in around 38 billion US dollars, while Meta and Alphabet each invested more than 20 billion US dollars in AI research and development.
Most of the funds are used to build infrastructure such as data centers and AI-specific processors. Apple chose a different path - developing device-based technology through Apple Intelligence, with more data processing done directly on the user's device.
However, this approach also leaves a big question mark. Until now, the new version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence has not been fully released. This triggered the perception that Apple is lagging behind in AI innovation, even though it is still profitable in business.
Apple is known to often "come late but on target". If the Siri update later manages to meet expectations, this strategy could prove effective again. However, if it fails or continues to be delayed, Apple's dominance in app distribution may not be enough to cover the lag on the core technology side.
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