Apple has reported that its App Store ecosystem generated more than $1.4 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2025, marking a major milestone and reflecting a tripling in size since 2019. The figures are released annually ahead of WWDC as part of Apple’s broader update on developer activity and platform performance.
“Developers are the heartbeat of the App Store, and this year’s incredible milestone is a testament to their boundless creativity,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “We are deeply committed to providing developers with the tools, technologies, and trusted platforms they need to build for the future. Together, developers are creating apps that enrich the lives of users around the world.”
According to Apple, more than 90% of the total billings and sales across the ecosystem were not subject to Apple’s commission. This means that the majority of revenue attributed to the App Store economy comes from transactions where Apple does not directly take a cut.
Apple’s methodology also includes a broad definition of ecosystem activity, counting not only in-app purchases and App Store transactions but also external digital goods and services purchased outside the App Store. These include subscriptions such as streaming platforms, digital media services, and other recurring paid content like Hulu, Audible, Spotify, and The New York Times.
As a result, the $1.4 trillion figure reflects the wider economic activity associated with apps on Apple devices, rather than strictly App Store-mediated payments. This also raises ongoing questions about attribution—particularly in cases where services are purchased outside the App Store but consumed within Apple’s ecosystem, such as subscriptions accessed via Apple TV or iOS apps.
Apple says its reporting aims to capture the full economic footprint of the App Store ecosystem, though the methodology continues to spark discussion about how “platform value” should be defined in a digital economy increasingly shaped by external payments and cross-platform services.
Revamped NVIDIA-powered cloud infrastructure to support upgraded Siri, enabling faster and more private AI processing
Revamped Siri to leverage a hybrid cloud architecture involving NVIDIA hardware and Google Cloud, raising new questions around privacy and Apple Intelligence infrastructure
Apple is reportedly evolving its approach to Apple Intelligence by expanding beyond its original “Apple Silicon-only” and fully Apple-controlled cloud vision. While the company continues to emphasize on-device processing for many AI tasks, more complex requests are expected to be routed to cloud infrastructure when necessary.
Earlier statements from Apple’s software leadership suggested that any cloud-based AI processing would remain strictly within Apple-operated servers under its Private Cloud Compute system. However, newer reports indicate that Apple is now working with external infrastructure partners, including Google Cloud, which operates servers powered by NVIDIA’s Blackwell B200 GPUs.
These chips reportedly support “confidential computing” features, which encrypt data during processing to maintain privacy even in shared cloud environments. This is intended to preserve Apple’s privacy guarantees while still enabling large-scale AI workloads that may be too heavy for on-device or Apple-only infrastructure.
Apple’s existing Private Cloud Compute system already ensures that user prompts are not retained for model training and are processed in controlled environments designed for transparency and security. The new hybrid approach appears to extend that model rather than replace it, although it introduces more third-party hardware and infrastructure into the pipeline.
Reports also suggest Apple may have explored running Google’s Gemini models within its Private Cloud Compute framework, but performance limitations made it impractical for real-time use. As a result, Apple is said to be balancing multiple systems, potentially including Google Gemini, NVIDIA-powered servers, and its own infrastructure.
If confirmed, this shift would mark a notable change in Apple’s traditionally vertically integrated strategy, where the company tightly controls both hardware and software. Instead, the next generation of Siri could operate across a more distributed AI ecosystem—blending Apple’s privacy architecture with external high-performance cloud compute to meet the demands of modern generative AI.
App Store ecosystem surges to $1.4 trillion globally in 2025, from a certain point of view
