The handoff of Apple’s credit card business is already leaving a visible mark on bank earnings, underscoring how costly large-scale consumer finance transitions can be. JPMorgan Chase reported a decline in fourth-quarter profits as it absorbed the financial groundwork required to become the new issuer of Apple Card. According to figures cited by The Wall Street Journal , JPMorgan’s Q4 profit slipped to roughly $13 billion, a year-over-year drop of about 7 percent. While slower deal activity weighed on investment banking revenue, the most significant impact came from a large reserve the bank established in connection with Apple Card. Rather than reflecting current losses, the charge represents money set aside to cover potential future defaults on Apple Card balances. The move follows JPMorgan’s agreement to take over the program after Goldman Sachs exited a partnership that had struggled to turn profitable. Goldman’s consumer push, which included Apple Card and a separate card program with General Motors, reportedly leaned toward customers with weaker credit profiles, increasing long-term risk. By the time negotiations began for Goldman to unwind its Apple deal, unpaid Apple Card balances had grown into the tens of billions of dollars, far eclipsing exposure tied to its GM card. JPMorgan’s reserve, estimated at more than $2 billion, reflects that inherited risk and reduced earnings per share for the quarter. Despite the short-term hit, analysts have largely characterized JPMorgan’s broader performance as solid. Full-year revenue continued to climb, and profits for 2025 remained near historic highs, even if they fell slightly short of the bank’s record-setting results from the prior year. The episode highlights the financial complexity behind high-profile tech and banking partnerships. While Apple gains a new, more stable banking partner, JPMorgan’s results show that stepping into a massive consumer credit program comes with immediate costs before any long-term benefits can materialize.

Apple is reshaping how creators access its professional tools by introducing a new subscription offering aimed squarely at video editors, musicians, designers, and students building creative workflows across Mac and iPad. Called Apple Creator Studio, the bundle reflects a broader shift in Apple’s software strategy, one that blends professional apps, platform-wide AI enhancements, and ongoing content updates into a single paid service. With Creator Studio, Apple is no longer positioning apps like Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro as isolated purchases, but as parts of a larger creative ecosystem that evolves over time. The subscription unlocks Apple’s flagship pro apps across macOS and iPadOS, including tools for video editing, music production, motion graphics, live performance, and media compression, while also expanding Pixelmator Pro beyond the Mac to the iPad for the first time. The bundle’s real differentiator, however, lies beyond the apps themselves. Apple is tying Creator Studio to a growing set of AI-powered features and premium creative resources that extend into everyday productivity apps like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, with Freeform joining later this year. These additions include advanced image manipulation tools, smarter layout and design capabilities, and access to curated libraries of templates, themes, and royalty-free media that are not available to non-subscribers. Apple is careful to leave the door open for traditional buyers. Each app will still be sold individually with a one-time purchase option, and free versions of Apple’s core productivity apps remain intact. That said, future high-end AI features and exclusive content will increasingly live behind the Creator Studio subscription, signaling where Apple expects serious creators to land. In the U.S., Creator Studio is priced at $12.99 per month or $129 annually, with significantly reduced pricing for college students, at $2.99 per month or $29 annually. Apple is also leaning on trials to drive adoption, offering a one-month free trial to all users and extended three-month trials to customers who purchase newer Macs or qualifying iPads. Family Sharing further broadens its appeal, allowing one subscription to cover multiple users at no extra cost. Creator Studio launches through the App Store on January 28, marking another step in Apple’s gradual transition toward service-driven creative software. Rather than selling static tools, Apple is betting that creators will pay for an always-improving platform that blends professional apps, AI capabilities, and content under one subscription.

Apple’s next phase of artificial intelligence development is taking a quieter, more calculated direction than many expected. Rather than attempting to rebuild everything internally from scratch, Apple is choosing to accelerate its plans by licensing external AI technology while keeping tight control over how it is deployed. The company has entered a long-term agreement with Google to use Gemini-related models and cloud capabilities as a technical base for Apple’s own large language models. The arrangement, first reported by CNBC, confirms months of industry speculation that Apple would look outside its walls to strengthen Apple Intelligence after falling behind rivals in generative AI. What this deal does not do is hand Siri over to Google. Apple is not routing iPhone requests into Google’s consumer AI services, nor is it allowing Gemini to absorb user data into Google’s broader ecosystem. Instead, the Gemini technology will be adapted internally and used as groundwork for Apple Foundation Models that Apple trains, customizes, and operates itself. That distinction matters because Siri’s upcoming overhaul depends heavily on Apple’s privacy architecture. Requests will continue to be processed through Apple-controlled systems, including Private Cloud Compute, where data is encrypted, isolated, and deleted after use. Apple has already applied a similar model with its existing Siri integration with OpenAI, where ChatGPT handles queries without access to a user’s personal Apple data. The real opportunity here is what Apple can build on top of this foundation. By owning the final model and its deployment, Apple can tightly integrate Siri with iOS features like App Intents, allowing the assistant to take more reliable action across apps. This is an area where Siri has historically struggled, and where deeper system-level access could make a noticeable difference. Apple’s recent support for Model Context Protocol also signals a broader shift. External AI systems may eventually interact with apps on Apple platforms, but Apple’s own assistant is likely to retain capabilities that third-party models cannot fully match. Rather than signaling weakness, the Gemini partnership suggests Apple is prioritizing speed and control over pride. By blending Google’s AI research with Apple’s infrastructure and privacy standards, Apple is positioning Siri’s next evolution as a distinctly Apple-built experience, even if its foundations come from elsewhere.

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