Apple Is Mostly Sitting Out the AI Spending Arms Race. With AI Stocks Selling Off, That Suddenly Looks Smart.
Written by Daniel Sparks for The Motley Fool -> Apple's capital expenditures totaled about $12.7 billion in fiscal 2025, a fraction of its mega-cap peers' spending. The company announced a new $100 billion share repurchase program in April. AI infrastructure stocks have sold o
Apple's capital expenditures totaled about $12.7 billion in fiscal 2025, a fraction of its mega-cap peers' spending.
The company announced a new $100 billion share repurchase program in April.
AI infrastructure stocks have sold off this month on spending and financing concerns.
Some of the technology world's biggest spenders had a rough week. Oracle sank by a double-digit percentage after pairing record quarterly results with plans to raise tens of billions of dollars in additional financing for its artificial intelligence (AI) data center build-out. Chip stocks fell hard, too, as investors questioned when all of this spending starts paying for itself.
Some investors may think the best way to diversify away from these AI companies is to venture beyond tech. But I actually think one of tech's biggest names offers some good balance to stocks like this. I'm talking bout the $4.3 trillion iPhone-maker: Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) .
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Apple has been flagged by some investors in recent years as behind "behind" on AI as other tech giants spend far more to capitalize on opportunities in the AI era. But what if this is actually a strength?
Apple's capital expenditures in fiscal 2025 (the period ended Sept. 27, 2025) totaled about $12.7 billion. Its mega-cap peers -- Microsoft , Alphabet , Meta Platforms , and Amazon -- combined to spend more than $400 billion on the same line item in calendar 2025.
