In its quarterly results, Apple reported that research and development expenses climbed to a record $11.73 billion, continuing the sharp acceleration in spending seen throughout fiscal 2026. Here are the details.
Apple increases R&D expenses #
Last quarter, Apple reported research and development expenses of $11.4 billion, a 34% year-over-year jump.
During the company’s conference call discussing the results, Tim Cook said Apple was “clearly investing more,” adding that R&D was “accelerating much higher than the company” overall.
He later reiterated that R&D had “scaled rather significantly on a year-over-year basis,” specifically while discussing Apple’s AI investments. Apple CFO Kevan Parekh added that AI spending was being layered incrementally onto Apple’s normal product roadmap investments.
Today, Apple released its Q3 2026 results, reporting a record $11.73 billion in research and development expenses. That marked a 32% increase from the year-ago quarter and brought Apple’s total R&D spending for fiscal 2026 so far to $34.04 billion.
For comparison, Apple spent $34.55 billion on R&D during all of fiscal 2025. This means the company has nearly matched last year’s full-year total with one quarter remaining, while already surpassing its annual R&D spending for fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023. Over the past few days, Wall Street has sharply punished companies that announced accelerating AI-related spending without showing an equally clear near-term payoff.
Alphabet shares fell 7% after the company raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast by $15 billion, to between $195 billion and $205 billion. Meta also saw its shares fall by roughly 9% to 10% after reporting a 91% decline in free cash flow, while raising the lower end of its annual capital spending forecast to $130 billion.
Apple shares are currently down roughly 4% in after-hours trading. That reaction could change during the earnings call, and again when regular trading begins tomorrow.
For the breakdown of Apple’s Q3 2026 results, follow this link.
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