Apple's revenue forecast for the September-ending fiscal quarter fell short of market expectations, as the ongoing AI infrastructure investment boom continues to strain the tech supply chain. This also marks the final earnings report issued under Tim Cook's tenure as Chief Executive Officer.

Chief Financial Officer Kevin Parekh told analysts that Apple expects revenue growth of 9% to 11% year-over-year for the fiscal quarter ending in September, below the Wall Street consensus estimate of 12%. Apple's stock declined 7.5% in after-hours trading following the earnings report. Cook cautioned investors, stating, "Market demand remains strong, but supply chain resilience is insufficient, and the negative impact of supply shortages is expected to intensify significantly."

Before this disappointing guidance, the hardware giant reported iPhone revenue of $54.3 billion, up nearly 22% year-over-year and exceeding the $53.1 billion Wall Street estimate. Despite memory chip price increases leading to an overall contraction in global smartphone industry sales, Apple's iPhone achieved countertrend growth. Parekh remarked, "Even with supply chain constraints and sequential currency headwinds, we still delivered this strong performance."

Apple has recently reclaimed its position as the world's most valuable company, with its market capitalization briefly touching $5 trillion. Among major tech companies heavily investing in AI, Apple's relatively restrained AI-related expenditure has made it a preferred safe-haven tech stock for capital amid volatile stock movements. However, investors closely watched Thursday's earnings report to gauge how Apple is addressing the industry-wide shortage of memory chips. Apple stated that chip shortages were the core reason behind the rare 20% price increase for its MacBook and iPad models in June.

John Ternus, the head of hardware operations who will succeed Cook as CEO in September, must demonstrate to investors that he can effectively manage the vast global supply chain system Cook built, especially during this critical period of supply chain pressure. The market widely expects Apple to raise iPhone prices later this year, while also separately launching the base model iPhone 18 and a new iPhone Air model to alleviate pressure on suppliers. To mitigate consumer resistance to price increases, Apple has introduced new consumer installment plans. This week, it partnered with buy-now-pay-later platform Klarna, allowing US users to lease an iPhone for as low as $17.99 per month.

In the short term, Apple's strategy of maintaining iPhone pricing has boosted its global market share from 17% to 20% this quarter. During the same period, global smartphone shipments declined by 11% year-over-year. Bernstein analysts noted in a research report this week that Apple is the only major smartphone maker not to raise prices, significantly outperforming the broader market. According to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), memory chip prices surged approximately 300% in the second quarter of this year alone, as demand from AI data center construction has fully depleted chip capacity.

Apple's gross margin continues to remain at its traditionally high level. The gross margin for the quarter was 50%, including a 2-percentage-point contribution from a tax refund related to emergency tariffs introduced by the Trump administration last year, which were later invalidated by the US Supreme Court. The gross margin for hardware products was 40%, exceeding the market expectation of 36.3%. Apple reported total revenue of $109.4 billion for the fiscal quarter ending in June, a 16% increase year-over-year, slightly above the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of $108 billion. MacBook revenue reached $10.4 billion, significantly surpassing the market forecast of $8.8 billion, exhibiting strong year-over-year growth. Net income for the quarter was $29.8 billion, exceeding the analyst estimate of $27.4 billion. Revenue from the services segment, which includes the App Store and Apple Pay, was $30.7 billion, falling short of the market expectation of $31.4 billion. Capital expenditure for the quarter was $2.5 billion, a decrease of approximately $1.1 billion from the same period last year, and well below the investment scale of industry competitors.