Apple Holds Launch Event For New Products At Its Headquarters

Apple CEO Tim Cook looks at a new iPhone 14 Pro (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Cell Signal

The new iPhone isn’t doing it for Verizon

So far Apple sales signals are mixed.

10/22/24 9:36AM

Some analysts expected the new iPhone, replete with Apple Intelligence, would drive a supercycle of iPhone sales. While we won’t hear from Apple until the end of the month about those initial sales, Verizon, which sells plenty of phones, reported today, and it didn’t look great for Apple.

So far, it seems Apple’s iPhone 16 hasn’t helped Verizon sell hardware. Wireless-equipment revenue declined 8% from a year earlier, offsetting gains Verizon made in services revenue and causing it to miss analyst estimates. Total upgrade volume (people trading in their old phone for a newer one) was down 10% year over year. Of course, that data is for all phone sales, not just iPhones.

It’s not clear how impressive Apple’s AI phone will be, since Apple Intelligence features won’t be available to the general public until next week. What we’ve seen so far in the beta version doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Either way, people don’t actually buy new iPhones for the new features but rather because their old phones no longer work that well or were lost or broken.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said during Goldman Sachs’ tech conference last month that upgrade cycles have gotten “longer and longer,” from 12 months in the 1990s to 40 months now, as “people keep the phone because the quality is higher and it works really good.”

Bullish analysts are hoping the incorporation of AI will be such a fundamental improvement that people will have to upgrade.

Apple has actually seen record iPhone sales volume in Q3, according to data last week from Canalys, but much of that came from sales of older, less expensive models.

“The ongoing strong demand for the iPhone 15 series, along with Apple’s legacy models, played a crucial role in its Q3 performance,” Canalys analyst Runar Bjørhovde wrote. “Despite a modest initial reception, the iPhone 16 is expected to help Apple maintain a strong finish to 2024 and help momentum in H1 2025, particularly as Apple Intelligence expands into new markets and supports additional languages.”

In China, sales of the new model were up 20% in the first three weeks, compared to the first three weeks of sales for the previous model last year. Right after the iPhone 16 went on sale in the US last month, we saw that traffic to Apple’s website had declined from the past few years.

What happens with the iPhone is a big deal for Apple, since it accounts for about half its overall revenue. Right now those signals are decidedly mixed.

More Tech

See all Tech

Jon Keegan3h

WSJ: Anduril’s weapons systems have failed during several tests

Autonomous drones by sea, land, and air. Futuristic AI-powered support fighter jets, and swarms of networked drones controlled by sophisticated software. These are some of the visions for the future of warfare pitched by defense tech startup Anduril. Cofounded by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, the Peter Thiel-backed startup has landed some major national security contracts based on this futuristic outlook for battlefield AI.

But according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the company’s tech is failing key tests in the real world, raising concerns about the viability and safety of Anduril’s systems within the military command.

Anduril’s Altius drones proved vulnerable to Russian jamming while deployed in Ukraine and have been pulled from the battlefield, per the report.

More than a dozen sea-based drone ships powered by Anduril’s Lattice command and control software recently shut down during a Navy test, creating a hazard for other vessels in the exercise.

And this summer, during a drone intercept test, Anduril’s counter-drone system crashed and caused a 22-acre fire at a California airport, the report found.

Anduril told the WSJ that the failures are just part of its rapid iterative development process:

“We recognize that our highly iterative model of technology development — moving fast, testing constantly, failing often, refining our work, and doing it all over again — can make the job of our critics easier. That is a risk we accept. We do fail… a lot.”

Exclusive | ‘We Do Fail … a Lot’: Defense Startup Anduril Hits Setbacks With Weapons Tech

Anduril’s Altius drones proved vulnerable to Russian jamming while deployed in Ukraine and have been pulled from the battlefield, per the report.

More than a dozen sea-based drone ships powered by Anduril’s Lattice command and control software recently shut down during a Navy test, creating a hazard for other vessels in the exercise.

And this summer, during a drone intercept test, Anduril’s counter-drone system crashed and caused a 22-acre fire at a California airport, the report found.

Anduril told the WSJ that the failures are just part of its rapid iterative development process:

“We recognize that our highly iterative model of technology development — moving fast, testing constantly, failing often, refining our work, and doing it all over again — can make the job of our critics easier. That is a risk we accept. We do fail… a lot.”

Jon Keegan5h

OpenAI’s partners shouldering $100 billion of debt, taking on all the risk

OpenAI’s ambitious plans for global AI infrastructure projects — like its series of massive Stargate AI data centers — will require tens of billions of dollars funded by debt, but you won’t find much of that on OpenAI’s balance sheet.

According to a new analysis by the Financial Times, OpenAI has somehow convinced its many partners to shoulder at least $100 billion in debt on its behalf, as well as the risks that come with it.

Partners Oracle, SoftBank, CoreWeave, Crusoe, and Blue Owl Capital are all taking on debt in the form of bonds, loans, and credit deals to meet their obligations with OpenAI for infrastructure and computing resources.

Having close ties with OpenAI has been an anchor for many publicly traded companies in recent weeks. The company’s cash burn and the rise of Gemini 3 have seemingly darkened its outlook and fostered guilt by association for many of its close partners and investors. Most notably, Oracle’s aggressive capital expenditure plans to support demand from OpenAI have sparked a sell-off in its stock while widening its credit default swap spreads.

A senior OpenAI executive told the FT: “That’s been kind of the strategy. How does [OpenAI] leverage other people’s balance sheets?”

OpenAI partners amass $100bn debt pile to fund its ambitions

A senior OpenAI executive told the FT: “That’s been kind of the strategy. How does [OpenAI] leverage other people’s balance sheets?”

David Crowther11/27/25

Chinese tech giants are training their models offshore to sidestep US curbs on Nvidia’s chips

Nvidia can’t sell its best AI chips in the world’s second-largest economy. That’s an Nvidia problem. But it’s also a China problem — and it’s one that the region’s tech giants have resorted to solving by training their AI models overseas, according to a new report from the Financial Times.

Citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter, the FT reported that “Alibaba and ByteDance are among the tech groups training their latest large language models in data centers across south-east Asia.” Clusters of data centers have particularly boomed in Singapore and Malaysia, with many of the sites kitted out with Nvidia’s latest architecture.

One exception, per the FT, is DeepSeek, which continues to be trained domestically, having reportedly built up a stockpile of Nvidia chips before the US export ban came into effect.

Last week, Nvidia spiked on the news that the Trump administration was reportedly considering letting the tech giant sell its best Hopper chips — the generation of chips that preceded Blackwell — to China.

China’s tech giants take AI model training offshore to tap Nvidia chips

One exception, per the FT, is DeepSeek, which continues to be trained domestically, having reportedly built up a stockpile of Nvidia chips before the US export ban came into effect.

Millie Giles11/27/25

Alibaba unveils its first AI glasses, taking on Meta directly in the wearables race

Retail and tech giant Alibaba launched its first consumer-ready, AI-powered smart glasses on Thursday, marking its entrance into the growing wearables market.

Announced back in July, the Quark AI glasses just went on sale in the Chinese retailer’s home market, with two versions currently available: the S1, starting at 3,799 Chinese yuan (~$536), and the G1, at 1,899 yuan (~$268) — a considerably lower price than Meta’s $799 Ray-Ban Display glasses, released in September.

Alibaba's AI glasses to rival Meta go on sale for $500

Jon Keegan11/26/25

Musk: Tesla’s Austin Robotaxi fleet to “roughly double” next month, but falls well short of earlier goals

Yesterday, Elon Musk jumped onto a frustrated user’s post on X, who was complaining that they were unable to book a Robotaxi ride in Austin. Musk aimed to reassure the would-be customer that the company was expanding service in the city:

“The Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double next month,” Musk wrote.

While that sounds impressive, there are reports that Austin has only 29 vehicles in service.

But last month, Musk said the Robotaxi goal was to have “probably 500 or more in the greater Austin area” by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Google’s Waymo has more than 100 autonomous taxis running in Austin, and 1,000 more in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Elon Musk slashes Tesla Robotaxi fleet goal from 500 to ~60 in Austin

“The Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double next month,” Musk wrote.

While that sounds impressive, there are reports that Austin has only 29 vehicles in service.

But last month, Musk said the Robotaxi goal was to have “probably 500 or more in the greater Austin area” by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Google’s Waymo has more than 100 autonomous taxis running in Austin, and 1,000 more in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.