Even if the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple is so far behind on AI it is almost not worth bothering, it is making a fortune out of the technology with its dodgy App store antics.
Job’s Mob is on pace to clear more than $1 billion in artificial-intelligence revenue in 2026, which looks tidy even if its own AI “strategy” is still a bit wobbly.
Siri remains pathetic by modern chatbot standards, but the iPhone is still where most of these bots end up living, no matter how clever their makers get.
That keeps everyone paying the App Store tax, at roughly 30 per cent of subscription fees in the first year and 15 per cent, though rates vary by country.
According to the Wall Street Journal, generative AI apps paid Job’s Mob nearly $900 million in App Store fees in 2025, according to app analytics outfit AppMagic.
AppMagic reckons three quarters of that GenAI revenue comes from ChatGPT, with xAI’s Grok limping in next at about five per cent.
The take rose from about $35 million in January 2025 to a high of $101 million in August, then slipped as ChatGPT downloads cooled off.
While, as part of Job’s Mob’s total sales, $1 billion is pocket fluff, GenAI apps are padding the services business that investors have been staring at for years.
While rivals throw hundreds of billions of dollars at chips and data centres to chase frontier models, Job’s Mob is spending a fraction.
Johnson Asset Management, chief investment officer Charles Rinehart said, “If they can act as a toll road for providers of AI, then they’ll probably end up looking good long-term for not having the big capex overhang.”
Apps can dodge some fees by forcing sign-ups on their own websites instead of the App Store, though that trick does not work everywhere, and plenty of firms cannot be bothered.
Job’s Mob has struggled for years to modernise Siri, which helped trigger the announcement of John Giannandrea’s departure last year.
Siri can handle basics like setting an alarm, but it cannot remember a conversation, do deep research or create content like newer chatbots.
OpenAI is trying to control its destiny by building devices, snapping up a hardware startup co-founded by former Jobs’ Mob designers, including Jony Ive.
