CEO Tim Cook says Apple ready to open its wallet to catch up in AI

Apple CEO Tim Cook signalled on Thursday that the iPhone maker was ready to spend more to catch up to rivals in artificial intelligence by building more data centres or buying a larger player in the segment, a departure from a long practice of fiscal frugality.

Apple has struggled to keep pace with rivals such as Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google, both of which have attracted hundreds of millions of users to their AI-powered chatbots and assistants. That growth has come at a steep cost, however, with Google planning to spend $85 billion over the next…