Technologies

Tim Cook Riffs on Retirement Rumors, AI, Phone Addiction and Trump

The Apple CEO discussed a range of topics on Good Morning America.

Tim Cook isn’t going anywhere just yet — not during Apple’s 50th anniversary celebrations, not with the company preparing to introduce its first foldable phone, not while the tech giant is trying to figure out how to beat the AI race.

In a sit-down interview with Good Morning America host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan this week, Cook, who turned 65 in November, said there was no truth to the rumors that he is considering retiring from Apple. He became CEO of the company in 2011, 13 years after joining from Compaq.

«I love what I do deeply. Twenty-eight years ago, I walked into Apple, and I’ve loved every day of it since,» Cook told Strahan. «We’ve had ups and downs, but the people I work with are so amazing. They bring out the best in me, and hopefully I can bring out the best in them.»

Strahan interviewed Cook during the Apple CEO’s visit to Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Harlem, where students use Apple technology through the company’s partnership with the nonprofit Save the Music.

Speculation about Cook stepping down has been circulating since last November, when the Financial Times cited unnamed sources saying that Apple was preparing to usher in a new CEO «as soon as next year.» Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman threw water on that report, saying he «would be shocked if Cook steps down in the time frame outlined by the FT.»

During Cook’s tenure as CEO, Apple’s revenue has nearly quadrupled, with the tech giant adding dozens of new iPhone models, several more iPads, and updated Apple Watches and AirPods. This year, Apple has launched several new products, including the MacBook Neo, which at $599 has disrupted the budget laptop market. The company’s first foldable phone could come later this year.

Touch some grass

The GMA interview was short but wide-ranging, including Cook’s thoughts on how much people use their iPhones. Many studies estimate that people across most generations spend at least 4 hours a day on their phones, with millennials and Gen Z spending 5 to 6 hours.

When asked what he worries about most regarding Apple products’ impact on society, Cook weighed in, telling Strahan he doesn’t want people using iPhones «too much.»

«I don’t want people looking at the smartphone more than they’re looking in someone’s eyes,» Cook said, «because if they’re just scrolling endlessly, this is not the way you want to spend your day. Go out and spend it in nature.»

More on Apple from CNET:

AI and privacy

Cook told Strahan that AI «can be so positive,» but his response when asked whether he was «worried» about it was fairly flat.

«Technology doesn’t want to be good, and it doesn’t want to be bad,» Cook said. «It’s in the hands of the user and the hands of the inventor.»

Strahan questioned how much of iPhone users’ private lives are feeding Apple’s AI learning machine. Cook told him that because the smartphone is encrypted, Apple doesn’t have access to it. He went on to say: «When we can’t answer a question on your device, we send it to something called private cloud compute, which is essentially a big device in the sky that has the same kind of security and architecture as your phone.»

On its website, Apple says that it «does not use our users’ private personal data or user interactions when training our foundation models.»

To date, Apple has been cautious in diving into the AI scrum. While Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are spending nearly $700 billion combined on AI tech this year, Apple is «only» investing $14 billion.

Trump and tariffs

Cook has been criticized for being too cozy with the Trump administration: donating $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration; giving him a 24-karat gold plaque; and attending a White House screening of Melania, a film about the First Lady.

The Apple CEO told Strahan that he’s «not a political person» on either side.

«I’m kind of straight down the middle, and I focus on policy,» Cook said. «So, I’m very pleased that the president and the administration is accessible to talk about policy.»

One of those policies has been tariffs, which Trump has imposed on many nations to varying degrees during his second term in office, purportedly to pressure companies to shift their manufacturing to the US. The president has largely spared Apple, which promised to invest $600 billion over four years to make more products in the US.

Cook told Strahan that the glass for the front and back of an iPhone will come out of Kentucky by the end of the year, and that 100 million chip engines will be manufactured in Arizona this year. He also noted that 20 billion semiconductors will be made in the US. «We’re a very proud American company, and we want to do as much here as we can,» Cook said.

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