After somewhat paring some losses from early in the trading day, the company’s shares were up 0.7% in afternoon trade.
The company’s artificial intelligence (AI) branch will be receiving a number of staff members who were working on the electric car project, as first reported by Bloomberg News.
“If it is true, Apple will put more focus on GenAI and that should give investors more optimism about the company’s efforts and ability to compete at a platform level on AI.”
Ben Bajarin, chief executive of consulting firm Creative Strategies
In sharp contrast to other tech titans like Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, and Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, who enjoy first-mover advantage in implementing AI, Apple has so far refrained from making any significant strides in the field.
Apple declined to comment.
The sector has reduced employment and output as a result of the consumer backlash caused by high borrowing rates intended to contain inflation and the decline in demand for electric vehicles, which are often more expensive.
Leading electric vehicle manufacturers, such as Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, have chosen to reduce their investment, with some reorienting their strategies to concentrate on hybrid vehicles rather than totally battery-powered vehicles.
A surge of enthusiasm in self-driving cars raced through Silicon Valley a decade ago, when Apple launched Project Titan, as its internal name for its automotive project.
In 2020, Apple was thinking of launching a car as early as 2024 or 2025.
However, there had been unequal progress long before the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world auto industry.
After reorganizing its software strategy in 2019, Apple let go of 190 employees from the group.
Additionally, the concept car’s design was altered from a radical autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel, which would have deviated from normal automotive design, to a more traditional car with cutting-edge driver-assistance capabilities.
