Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2026 first quarter, which ended December 27, 2025.
The company posted quarterly revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16% year over year. Diluted earnings per share were $2.84, up 19% year over year. It was another “quarter for the record books,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO, in an analyst call.
“Today, Apple is proud to report a remarkable, record-breaking quarter, with revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16 percent from a year ago and well above our expectations,” said Cook. “iPhone had its best-ever quarter driven by unprecedented demand, with all-time records across every geographic segment, and services also achieved an all-time revenue record, up 14% from a year ago.”
He added, “We are also excited to announce that our installed base now has more than 2.5 billion active devices, which is a testament to incredible customer satisfaction for the very best products and services in the world.”
Those numbers, of course, are astounding. Apple generated nearly $54 billion in operating cash flow during the quarter. And it gave $32 billion back to shareholders in a dividend.
“The demand for iPhone was simply staggering, with revenue growing 23% year over year,” Cook said. “We set all time revenue records in the Americas, Europe, Japan and rest of Asia Pacific, and grew in the vast majority of markets we track.”
Apple’s gross margins were high and profits were up, even though memory chip prices went up 40% to 50% during the quarter. Apple, of course, gets its memory chips through long-term contracts where it’s prices don’t fluctuate much.
“Beyond Q2, I don’t want to comment on supply,” Cook said, regarding a memory chip question from an analyst. “I commented before on memory pricing.” He said he didn’t want to predict what the market would do in the future.
And Cook said it’s difficult to assess demand when you can’t meet demand.
Greater China grew 38% year over year, driven by iPhone thanks to record upgraders and switchers. iPhone drove the strength and Cook believes it gained market share. The iPad delivered $8.6 billion in revenue, up 6% from a year ago.
For the Apple Watch, Cook noted a survey said an increasing number of users say they are wearing their watch to sleep, which allows them to check their sleep scores each morning and find ways to improve their sleep quality.
He also said the AirPods Pro 3 has done well thanks to the live translation feature that allows people to connect across languages in real time.
Apple has been behind on AI. And so it bought Q.ai, a tech to analyze facial expressions and non-verbal discussions with AI assistants, for $2 billion. Apple is also collaborating with Google to make the next generation of Apple foundation models.
Still, Cook noted, “During the quarter, we were excited to see that the majority of users on enabled iPhones are actively leveraging the power of Apple Intelligence. Since the launch of Apple Intelligence, we’ve introduced dozens of features, including writing tools and cleanup and made it available in 15 languages. These AI experiences are personal, private, integrated across our platforms and relevant to what our users do every day.”
Cook also noted that services turned in $30 billion in revenue, a new record and 14% higher from a year ago. Apple TV also has “fantastic momentum,” Cook said, with December viewership growing 36% over the previous year.
He said anticipation is “building for upcoming new productions like Cape Fear from Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, and we are thrilled to announce that Ted Lasso will be returning for a fourth season this summer, six years since launch.”
Apple TV productions have won more than 650 wins and 3,200 nominations to date. F1 is nominated for Best Picture for the Oscars. Another big figure: Apple Pay eliminated more than $1 billion in fraud for partners last year.
Cook said the company has more than 850 million visitors a week to the App Store, and he said developers have now earned more than $550 billion on the platform since 2008. (Ahem, he did not say how much Apple had made with its 30% fees it charges to developers, but you can do that math).
He said Apple was especially proud of the work it is doing to support American innovation. Last year, he said Apple committed to invest $600 billion over four years in vital industries like advanced manufacturing, silicon engineering and artificial intelligence.
“As we’re building on our longstanding investments in America, we’re supporting nearly half a million jobs with thousands of suppliers across all 50 states,” he said. “In the year since we made our initial commitment, we’re making great progress. Today, we’re shipping servers to power Apple intelligence from our new manufacturing facility in Houston through our advanced manufacturing program.”
He said the company is working with Corning in Kentucky to make 100% of the cover glass for iPhone and Apple Watch. And it’s working with Micron, which broke ground on a new, advanced chip packaging and test facility. And it has sourced 20 billion chips in the U.S. during 2025 and its training people on smart manufacturing and AI in Detroit.