What happened: On Thursday, Apple released its earnings report for the first three months of the year, surpassing Wall Street's forecasts in part thanks to better-than-expected iPhone sales. What the numbers say: iPhone revenue, Apple's biggest money maker, grew 2% to $51.3B even as the broader smartphone industry suffered a contraction of nearly 15%, according to an estimate by IDC. Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters that the company achieved a fiscal second-quarter record for iPhone sales, partly due to new customers in emerging markets like India. The bigger picture: Cook highlighted the sales growth for new customers in Brazil, India, and Mexico, and confirmed that there were no significant supply chain issues during the quarter across all products. The supply chain issues and parts shortages that have impacted the iPhone in recent years are finally letting up, which should bode well when Apple releases its iPhone 15 lineup in the fall. 
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Apple is not currently planning mass layoffs and would only do so as a "last resort," CEO Tim Cook told CNBC. The company, however, has slowed its pace of hiring and laid off a small number of corporate retail employees and contractors as it copes with the challenging macroeconomic environment. Apple's decision to avoid mass layoffs contrasts with Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, which have laid off tens of thousands of employees since the pandemic. By the numbers: - Apple, however, is not immune to the same difficulties faced by its peers.
- In its earnings report released on Thursday, Apple reported a 3% drop in revenue to $94.8B, slightly better than analysts' expectations but its second straight quarterly revenue drop.
- Net income for the January-March quarter was $24.2B, a decrease of 3% from a year ago.
- Mac sales fell 31% to $7.2B for the quarter compared to $10.4B a year ago, while iPad sales decreased 13%.
Bright Spots: - Apple's services business — which includes iCloud, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and more — posted record sales of $20.9B for the quarter, a 5.5% jump from the prior year.
- Cook said Apple's active device installed base is at an all-time high. The company also claims 975 million subscribers on its platforms, up by 150 million from the prior year.
CNBC 
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 Pixel Fold Google confirmed that it will unveil its first foldable phone, the Pixel Fold, during its I/O event on May 10. The phone is expected to have a 5.8-inch external screen that folds out into a tablet-sized 7.6-inch display. It could ship in June for around $1,700, making it Google's most expensive smartphone, and a competitor to Samsung’s similarly priced Galaxy Z Fold 4. More: - On Thursday, Google shared a short teaser of the Tensor G2-powered phone opening up like a book.
- The company claims the Pixel Fold has "the most durable hinge on a foldable."
- Google is now allowing people to sign up for more details once the phone is unveiled on May 10.
Also at I/O: - The public beta of the Android 14 mobile operating system is expected. Google may also reveal the budget Pixel 7a phone and much-anticipated Pixel Tablet, its first tablet in years.
- The company will likely announce more about its AI products, including updates to its Bard chatbot.
- The Google I/O keynote starts 10 a.m. PT on May 10 and will be livestreamed on the Google I/O website, which requires registration.
CNET
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Microsoft and AMD have reportedly partnered to expand AMD's presence in the AI chip market and compete against top dog Nvidia. In return, AMD is helping Microsoft to create its own in-house AI chipset, code-named Athena, that would train and run chatbots and other AI models, according to Bloomberg sources. More: - During AMD's earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Lisa Su called AI "our number one strategic priority."
- To support AMD's chip development, Microsoft is said to be providing engineering resources, according to the sources.
- However, a Microsoft spokesperson denied AMD's involvement in the project.
- Meanwhile, Microsoft has already been testing its own chips for AI. The Athena chips would power large language models, such as ChatGPT, and others.
- So far, the company has invested $2B into the project. Microsoft has not said if it will offer the hardware to its Azure customers in the future.
Zoom Out: - The in-house chips would not fully replace Microsoft's reliance on Nvidia, the top supplier of AI server processors.
- Nvidia's latest H100 processors, its most advanced GPUs for AI inference and training, were selling for upwards of $45,000 on eBay.
- Google, Amazon, and Meta also have their own AI hardware.
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Google and Sonos will go to trial on Monday in a patent lawsuit brought by Sonos over the alleged theft of smart speaker technology. The trial in San Francisco federal court is part of an ongoing intellectual property dispute between the former partners that spans multiple countries. More: - Sonos has accused Google of copying its patented technology in Google Home and other wireless audio devices.
- The patents involved in the San Francisco case relate to synchronizing audio playback across speakers and eliminating echoes, among other tech.
- Sonos is now seeking $90M in damages from Google, down from $3B after a judge narrowed parts of the case.
- Google maintains that Sonos has misrepresented their partnership and mischaracterized their technology.
- The company has been redesigning its products so as to avoid infringing on the patents, a spokesperson said.
Zoom Out: - Last year, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in favor of Sonos, ordering Google to halt imports of products that use technology from five Sonos patents. Google has since appealed that ruling.
REUTERS
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Top CEOs in the tech industry, including Alphabet, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Microsoft, met with Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials on Thursday to discuss the potential risks and regulations for AI systems. President Joe Biden, who briefly joined the meeting, emphasized that AI poses immense potential as well as risks. More: - Harris acknowledged that AI has the potential to enhance lives but could also jeopardize safety, privacy, and civil rights.
- She stressed the CEOs' legal obligation to guarantee the safety of their AI products and assured them of the administration's willingness to push for new AI regulations and support relevant legislation.
- The White House also announced several new AI initiatives, including a $140M investment from the National Science Foundation to create seven new National AI Research Institutes, bringing the total to 25.
- The White House Office of Management and Budget also revealed plans to issue draft policy guidance on the use of AI tools by federal agencies, inviting public feedback starting in the summer.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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