Business

Apple shook off a thicket of tariffs and a botched entry into artificial intelligence to accelerate its revenue growth during its springtime quarter, but the trendsetting tech company still faces a bumpy road ahead that could lead to higher iPhone prices.

The April-June results released on Thursday (July 31, 2025) came against a backdrop of adversity that has been raising worries about the trajectory of a longtime tech kingpin that expects to absorb a setback of nearly $2 billion from the tariffs that President Donald Trump has already imposed and others in the pipeline.

Despite the doubts, Apple remains a moneymaking machine.

The Cupertino, California, company earned $23.4 billion, or $1.57 per share, during its fiscal third quarter, a 9 per cent increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 10% from a year ago to $94 billion. The company’s iPhone sales surged 13 per cent from a year ago to $44.6 billion. In another positive development, Apple’s business in China showed signs of snapping out of a prolonged malaise with a 4% bump in revenue from the same time last year.

All those numbers were well above the analyst projections that steer investors, helping to boost Apple’s recently slumping stock price by about 3 per cent in extended trading. But the unexpectedly solid performance doesn’t necessarily mean it’s smooth sailing ahead for Apple.

Mr. Trump’s trade war targeting foreign-made products such as the iPhone and Apple’s stumbling start in the pivotal transition to AI is causing investors to question if the company will remain at the tech forefront as the industry moves into a new era.

Before Thursday’s report came out, Apple’s stock price had plunged by 17% so far this year to wipe out more than $600 billion in shareholder wealth and knock the company off its perch as the world’s most valuable company. Meanwhile, the shares of AI chipmaker Nvidia have surged 32% this year, and the shares of AI pacesetter Microsoft have gained 27%, propelling the market value to $4 trillion.

Even though Apple remains highly profitable, the tariffs that Mr. Trump has already imposed on China and other countries cost the company $800 million during the past quarter, and CEO Tim Cook told analysts during a conference call that the fees would exact an additional toll of $1.1 billion during the July-September period. The company also predicted its revenue for the July-September period would increase at a slightly slower pace than the past quarter.

Apple softened the blow of Mr. Trump’s tariffs on products made outside the U.S. during the past quarter by shifting its production of iPhones from China to India. But the administration intends to impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, a move that could intensify the pressure on Apple to raise the prices on the next generation of iPhones expected to be released in September. Cook didn’t address the possibility of an iPhone increase during his Thursday remarks to analysts.

Meanwhile, Apple is still trying to fulfil the AI promises it made last year when it unveiled an array of new iPhone features built on the revolutionary technology, raising expectations that the shift would spur millions of people to upgrade their old devices. But Apple still hasn’t delivered on an AI upgrade that was supposed to smarten up its often-bumbling virtual assistant Siri, one of the main reasons underlying the lackluster growth of iPhone sales.

“There are two big questions looming over Apple: How are you going to rejigger your business model to deal with the new tariff backdrop and then what is the company going to do to drive an upgrade cycle for the iPhone?” said Melissa Otto, a stock market analyst for S&P’s Visible Alpha.

But Cook spent much of the conference call celebrating the ongoing popularity of the iPhone, noting that Apple has now sold more than 3 billion of them since the device’s debut in 2007. He also credited the AI features that Apple has been able to introduce for spurring a flurry of customers upgrading to the iPhone 16 models that came out last year.

“We see AI as one of the most profound technologies of our lifetime,” Cook said. “We are embedding it across our devices and platforms and across the company.” Through Apple’s recent ups and downs, the company has been able to rely on one consistent stronghold: the services division, which includes the iPhone app store, streaming subscriptions, product repair plans and other operations that generate recurring revenue. That was the case again in the past quarter, with services revenue rising 13% from last year to $27.2 billion.

But a significant portion of Apple’s services revenue could evaporate, depending on how a federal judge decides to curb the abuses of Google’s illegal monopoly in search. A ban on Google paying Apple more than $20 billion annually to lock in its search engine as the default on the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers is among the measures that U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is considering as part of a decision expected before Labor Day.

Income Tax Department conducted a survey at various offices of Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd, linked to Jane Street’s market manipulation on July 31, 2025, according to sources.

Nuvama in its exchange filing said that it was fully co-operating with the income tax department in the search. The wealth management firm was reportedly trading in India for Jane Street. Queries sent through email to Jane Street were unanswered till press time.

“The Income Tax Department is conducting a survey today under Section 133A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, at the Company’s Registered office. The Company is extending full co-operation with the authorities and sharing requisite information…The survey is yet to be concluded. The Company will make requisite disclosures, if any, to the Stock Exchanges under SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (“Listing Regulations”). The Company continues to operate business as usual,” Nuvama said in its exchange filing. Further they confirmed that they were compliant with the disclosure norms for Listing regulation.

The grounds of the searches were not known and Nuvama maintained that the survey had not concluded. Nuvama’s share closed 2.5% to ₹7225 a share reacting to the news.

SEBI had found Jane Street in violation of FPI regulations among others allegedly manipulating the derivative market. The American company which has its subsidiaries in India was banned from operating in the securities market unless the profit of over ₹4800 crore were transferred to SEBI in an escrow account, according to SEBI’s interim order. Following this, Jane Street paid this and asked that the curbs be lifted adding that it had all rights to its disposal. SEBI had then allowed the company to resume trading as it had complied with the interim order. 

With a value of ₹2.1 lakh crore, DLF Ltd. has retained its title as India’s most valuable real estate company in the 2025 GROHE- HURUN India Real Estate 150, which was released on Thursday. As per the report, Lodha Group (₹1.4 lakh crore) and Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (₹1.1 lakh crore) are the second and third most valuable companies respectively. 

With 63 new entrants this year, 29 companies have debuted directly into the top 100 and Mumbai has topped the list with 42 companies (up by 9), followed by Bengaluru with 23 (up by 8), New Delhi with 16 (up by 2), and Hyderabad and Pune with 13 companies each.

As many as 67% of the companies in the 2025 GROHE- HURUN India Real Estate 150 primarily operate in the residential real estate sector, while 15% each are focused on the commercial sector and hospitality.

The combined value of India’s most valuable real estate companies in list stands at ₹16 lakh crore ($188 billion), up by ₹1.9 lakh crore from last year.

Anas Rahman Junaid, Founder and Chief Researcher, Hurun India, said, “Despite early-year turbulence due to global conflicts and input cost pressures, the industry added ₹1.4 lakh crore in value, led by a sharp post-April recovery. DLF, Prestige, and Anant Raj posted over 20% rebounds in just two months. The entry of 63 new companies — 29 directly into the Top 100 — marks a widening of the leadership base, signalling renewed investor confidence and structural depth in India’s real estate ecosystem.” “Mumbai reaffirms its position as India’s real estate capital with 42 companies valued at ₹6.9 lakh crore, while cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune saw record additions,” he said.

Adani Enterprises Ltd., the holding company of the Adani Group, for the first quarter ended June 30, 2025 reported 50% decline in consolidated net profit at ₹734 crore as compared with ₹1,458 crore a year earlier.

While EBITDA was down 12% year on year (YoY) to ₹3,786 crore, total income during the quarter fell 14% YoY to ₹22,437 crore. “Adani Enterprises has established itself as one of the world’s most successful infrastructure incubators,” Chairman Gautam Adani said in a statement.

“The substantial rise in EBITDA contribution from our incubating businesses reflects strength and scalability of our operating model. This performance has been led by our Airports business, which delivered an exceptional 61% year-on-year growth in EBITDA,” he said.

“With landmark assets like the Navi Mumbai International Airport, the Copper Plant and the Ganga Expressway set to become operational, we are accelerating our mission to build next-generation infrastructure platforms that are globally benchmarked, technologically advanced and strategically vital to India’s growth story,” he added.

Apparel exports from India to the U.S. are expected to slowdown till a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) is signed between the two countries.

Sudhir Sekhri, chairman of AEPC, said in a release that the U.S. tariff of 25% is higher than what was expected. The BTA should hopefully be concluded by October-December 2025. “The penalty is a grey area and we hope the government will negotiate this with the U.S.,” he said.

The U.S. held 33% share in India’s total garment exports in 2024. India’s presence in the U.S. garment import market has grown, with its share increasing from 4.5% in 2020 to 5.8% in 2024, he pointed out. 

This steep tariff increase puts immense pressure on Indian exporters, many of whom operate on wafer-thin margins. Exporters may be forced to either absorb the additional costs, hurting profitability, or pass them on to U.S. buyers, which can further dampen demand. The impact will be particularly severe on MSMEs and labour-intensive units, said executive director of the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council Siddhartha Rajagopal. 

According to A. Ravikumar, executive director, Manmade Fibre and Technical Textiles Export Promotion Council (MATEXIL), the development had created considerable uncertainty among U.S. buyers, who are currently unclear about the final tariff structure that will be applicable. As a result, many importers have adopted a cautious approach and are holding back on placing new orders.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., for the first quarter ended June 30, 2025, reported 1.7% growth in net profit to ₹3,712 crore from ₹3,641 crore in the year-earlier period.

During the quarter, the company registered net sales income of ₹36,625 crore as against ₹33,875 crore a year earlier, up 8.11%.

On the performance, the company said, “The domestic passenger vehicle industry continued to witness a sluggish demand environment. For the company, a decline in domestic sales of 4.5% was compensated by a robust 37.4% growth in exports, resulting in an overall sales volume increase of 1.1% for the quarter, year-on-year.”

The company sold a total of 527,861 vehicles during the quarter, comprising domestic sales of 4,30,889 units and exports of 96,972 units.