Apple: what they buy and what they pay

Apple is profiled here as an AI lab^[1]. Data types cited in this profile include: Publisher content^[1].

Quick facts

Quick facts about Apple
Type	AI lab^[1]
Status	Active (reported)^[2]
Website	https://www.apple.com/^[3]
HQ	Cupertino, California, USA^[3]
Founded	1977^[4]
Ownership	Not published
Program	Not published
Price	At least $50 million, multiyear (offers to news publishers, reported Dec 2023)^[5]Possible nine-figure budget discussed for payments to publishers when their content is used (proposed Siri AI deals, reported Aug 2026)^[2]
Pricing basis	Variable compensation paid when publisher content is used (proposed Siri news deals, reported)^[2]
Payment timing	Not published
How to start	Not published

What they buy: Apple
Data types	Publisher content^[1]Images^[1]Images (reported)^[6]
Excluded	Not published
Intended use	Training (continued and context-lengthening stages of pre-training)^[7]Siri AI access to current events and information (multiyear deals sought, reported)^[2]

Price and payment: Apple
Price	At least $50 million, multiyear (offers to news publishers, reported Dec 2023)^[5]Possible nine-figure budget discussed for payments to publishers when their content is used (proposed Siri AI deals, reported Aug 2026)^[2]
Pricing basis	Variable compensation paid when publisher content is used (proposed Siri news deals, reported)^[2]
Payment timing	Not published
Seller fees	Not published
Platform's cut	Not published
Referral bounty	Not published

Deal terms: Apple
Deal structure	Content license (multiyear licenses of news archives proposed) (reported)^[5]
Exclusivity	Not published
Term	Multiyear (proposed) (reported)^[2]
Field of use	Not published
Onward transfer	Not published
Seller keeps ownership	Not published

Privacy and data handling: Apple
De-identification	Not published
Raw data deletion	Not published
Certifications	Not published
Personal data handling	Apple says it takes steps to apply filters to remove certain categories of personally identifiable information from its training data^[1]

Shutterstock — license of millions of images (reported by Reuters via 9to5Mac; said to have been signed in the months after ChatGPT's late-2022 release)^[6]

9to5Mac (relaying Reuters), Apr 2024: Apple licensed millions of Shutterstock images (reported)^[6]
Reuters (relaying NYT), Dec 2023: Apple approached Condé Nast, NBC News and IAC about licensing news archives (reported)^[5]
9to5Mac (relaying WSJ), Aug 2026: Apple reaching out to publishers for multiyear deals giving Siri AI access to current events and information (reported)^[2]

Lawsuit: proposed class action by authors Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson, filed in Northern California, targeting Apple's OpenELM models and accusing Apple of using the Books3 dataset of pirated books (Publishers Weekly, Sep 8, 2025) (reported)^[8]
Lawsuit: class action complaint filed October 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik, alleging Apple used pirated books to train its AI systems, including Apple Intelligence, OpenELM and Foundation Models (IPWatchdog, Oct 14, 2025) (reported)^[9]

Updates to Apple’s On-Device and Server Foundation Language Models - Apple Machine Learning Research, machinelearning.apple.com. Published June 9, 2025. Accessed October 30 and November 3, 2026. (company's own site)
Report: Apple seeks publisher deals to give Siri AI better access to current events - 9to5Mac, 9to5mac.com. Published August 12, 2026. Accessed October 30 and November 3, 2026. (press)
Apple Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year ended September 27, 2025, sec.gov. Accessed October 30, 2026. (filing)
Apple Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2018, sec.gov. Accessed October 30, 2026. (filing)
Apple explores AI deals with news publishers (Reuters, via DT Next), dtnext.in. Published December 23, 2023. Accessed October 30 and November 3, 2026. (press)
Apple struck deal with Shutterstock to license millions of images for AI training - 9to5Mac, 9to5mac.com. Published April 6, 2024. Accessed October 30, 2026. (press)
Apple Intelligence Foundation Language Models (arXiv:2407.21075v1), arxiv.org. Published July 29, 2024. Accessed November 3, 2026. (company publication)
Apple Sued by Authors for Copyright Infringement - Publishers Weekly, publishersweekly.com. Published September 8, 2025. Accessed November 3, 2026. (press)
Authors Take Page from Anthropic in Alleging Apple Infringed Works by Training AI on Pirated Books - IPWatchdog, ipwatchdog.com. Published October 14, 2025. Accessed November 3, 2026. (press)

Last verified November 3, 2026