Apple is going in a different direction than many of the other big players in IT. I thought of that when I saw this news:

AmazonAMZN $210.05 (-5.56%), AlphabetGOOGL $323.78 (-2.51%), MetaMETA $663.95 (-1.32%), and MicrosoftMSFT $403.00 (1.82%) all spent record sums last quarter on purchases of property and equipment — largely tied AI chips and data centers. And for the companies that offered forward-looking guidance, their capex plans for the year blew analysts’ already generous estimates out of the water.

Amazon expects its 2026 capex to surge to $200 billion. Google is aiming for $175 billion to $185 billion. Meta estimates it will spend between $115 billion and $135 billion. All of those figures came in well above expectations and, for the most part, have weighed on their stocks. Microsoft didn’t give a formal 2026 capex outlook, but if its peers are any indication, spending will likely exceed the roughly $114 billion Wall Street expects for the calendar year.

Of the Big Tech companies, just one stands apart this earnings season. Apple’sAAPL $277.08 (0.77%) capital expenditure, already just a fraction of its peers, actually declined in the December quarter from a year earlier.

All those other companies have capex increases rising like a hockey stick: Apple’s has been relatively flat in the last 10 years.

So what is Apple doing in the way of AI?

Apple has struck its own path with AI…  it’s embracing AI but is not an AI company… Apple’s decision to use Google’s Gemini, rather than an in-house model, to power the next generation of Siri and Apple Intelligence. The Google deal, reportedly worth about $1 billion a year, gives Apple access to a top-tier AI model for pennies on the dollar compared to what other Big Tech companies are spending to build their own.

It makes sense to me. Apple is not going to be an AI company any more than it will be a search engine company. It’s betting if anything that AI will become a software/SaaS commodity locked in to one company due to network effects and it will just be part of the overall solution that Apple’s products offers it’s customers.

Speaking of going in a different direction, I’ve recently updated my OS on both my Mac and iPhone and was surprised by the introduction of Liquid Glass and removal of  the flat (bland?) UI I’ve become accustomed to. It reminds me of the skeuomorphism of the older versions of the UI I once liked. Sure it ain’t Aqua, but it does make the screen more lively. I like it, but not all do. As the French say: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. For a thoughtful analysis of this new UI and what’s good and not so good about it, I recommend this piece.