Technologies

Apple warns of more supply chain woes after iPhone 13 drives revenue surge

The tech giant’s financial disclosures follow the release of new Mac computers, iPads and the iPhone 13.

Apple warned on Thursday that it continues to struggle with supply chain disruptions as it ramps up for an expected holiday shopping crunch following the release of its iPhone 13, new iPads, Apple Watches and Mac computers.

Apple said that iPhone sales jumped nearly 47% in the three months ended Sept. 25, as consumers snatched up the new iPhone 13. But Apple said its sales could have even been higher if not for the continued spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which has disrupted businesses across the globe. For Apple that led to a more limited number of products it could make and ship to customers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company missed out on as much as $6 billion in revenue as a result of constrained supplies, primarily driven by silicon chip shortages and manufacturing disruptions. «We are optimistic about the future, especially as we see strong demand for new products,» he told analysts on a conference call.

Still, even though the company expects supply constraints to continue through the holidays, CFO Luca Maestri said he expects Apple to set new sales records during the holiday shopping season.

Apple’s financial disclosures add to a growing tapestry of information about the world economy amid the pandemic. The pandemic upended what turned out to be fragile supply chains around the globe when it ripped through manufacturing and shipping hubs at the beginning of last year. Now, as the holiday shopping season begins, questions remain about potential supply shortages.

In response, large retailers such as Target, Best Buy, Amazon and even Macy’s have begun rolling out early Black Friday deals before Halloween in an effort to draw people to shop now.

As for Apple, many of its newly launched products are already on back order, with the company quoting shipping times for new iPhones into November and new Macs into December. That all speaks to how much Apple’s struggled to keep up with demand.

It also likely helps that Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter included launches for highly anticipated products, including a more rugged $399 Apple Watch Series 7, updated $329 entry-level iPad, and redesigned $499 iPad Mini. The biggest release though was the series of iPhone 13 models, starting at $699.

The company said it tallied $38.8 billion in iPhone sales, up from $26.4 billion the same time a year earlier. Some of that can be attributed to quirks of the calendar. Apple released its iPhone 12 last year a few weeks later than usual, and as a result, its iPhone sales took a hit. This year, Apple stuck to its typical schedule of releasing new iPhones in September.

All told, Apple said it notched profits of $20.5 billion, up 62% from the same last year. That translates to $1.24 per share in profit, off $83.36 billion in overall revenue, which itself was up more than 28% from the $64.7 billion reported last year. But it was below analysts’ average estimates, which were $1.24 per share in profits on nearly $84.9 billion in revenue, according to surveys published by Yahoo Finance.

«It’s difficult to predict COVID,» Cook said. He added that he believes Apple’s still in a «materially better» position than it was earlier this year.

Apple’s stock closed regular trading up 2.5% to $152.57 per share. The stock’s risen nearly 18% so far this year, valuing the company at more than $2.5 trillion.

Supply shortages

The tech industry’s supply issues stretch back more than a year. Initially, industry executives said, many companies lowered orders for products out of fear for decreased demand when the pandemic was just starting last year. That, mixed with waves of illness and manufacturing shutdowns, led to supply shortages as people ramped up online shopping.

Chip shortages have extended well past the tech industry too. It’s kept Sony from being able to produce enough of its PlayStation 5 consoles to meet demand. But it’s also kept Ford from being able to make its F-150 trucks.

Apple’s Cook said that most of the supply shortages it’s facing are among older chips, though the company didn’t say which products or chips in particular it’s referring to. But he did say that getting enough newer chips isn’t as much of an issue.

«What we’re doing is working with our partners, and making sure that they have supply,» he said. Apple’s reworked some of its manufacturing, he added, to have as many products ready for chips as possible. That way, a chip can roll off the manufacturing line, into a product and shipping «as fast as possible.»

By the numbers

Apple said it set a record for Mac sales at nearly $9.2 billion, up slightly from the $9 billion a year earlier, despite the struggles it’s faced to get products to customers.

Apple said its success is primarily driven by the company’s new M1 chips, microprocessing brains designed by the teams that work on the iPhone. These chips, which were first released last year, have been well received by reviewers, who say they’re able to perform well when compared to previous Mac computers. Apple had relied on Intel chips to power its computers for about 15 years.

«After nearly a year, I can say the Intel-to-M1 transition has been relatively smooth,» CNET reviewer Dan Ackerman wrote of the new Mac computers. «The best thing I can say about the M1 chip is that it’s largely transparent to the everyday MacBook Air user, which is exactly what you want from a big under-the-hood change like this.»

Apple’s iPad sales jumped 21% to $8.2 billion. Its segment called «wearables, home and accessories,» which includes the HomePod Mini and Apple Watch, jumped more than 11% to nearly $8.8 billion. Services revenue, including from the company’s $5-a-month Apple TV Plus service, rose 26% to nearly $18.3 billion.

Apple said nearly a third of its revenue now comes from developing countries. Sales in Greater China nearly doubled to $14.5 billion from the year earlier, while sales in the Americas jumped 20% to $36.8 billion, Europe rose 23% to $20.8 billion, and Japan ticked up 19%. Revenue from the rest of Asia Pacific rose 25% to $5.2 billion.

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know