Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) spent about a decade attempting to construct a car and canceled the effort in February 2024. Roughly 2,000 staff were reportedly working on it, and the company is reported to have spent billions before shutting it down and shifting much of the group to artificial intelligence (AI).
But Apple’s technology is still discovering its manner into automobiles.
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Apple and Ford (NYSE: F) announced that Apple Maps will energy the navigation expertise in Ford’s Universal Electric Vehicle Platform starting in 2027, delivered through a new developer package Apple calls MapKit for Automotive. The first vehicle on that platform is a midsize electric vehicle Ford has priced around $30,000.
“Our new midsize electric vehicle will be priced around $30,000 and redefines what advanced technology can be,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley in Apple’s announcement.
Image source: Getty Images.
What Apple is really supplying
The association goes deeper than a phone-mirroring screen. CarPlay tasks an iPhone onto a car’s show. This embeds Apple Maps into the vehicle itself, with Ford in a position to form the look to match its own design.
Drivers get turn-by-turn instructions with natural-language search, reside site visitors and incident information, and EV routing that preconditions the battery before a charging stop.
The more attention-grabbing piece, however, is beneath. Apple said the package provides road-level data automakers can use to construct hands-free driving experiences, and Ford is wiring it into the next era of BlueCruise — its hands-free freeway system.
That is a completely different job than drawing a map. It makes Apple a provider to someone else’s autonomy program.
“Apple Maps delivers the best map experience in the world, and we’re excited to bring the power of Maps’ navigation technology to Ford’s innovative Universal Electric Vehicle Platform,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of companies and health.
Why this beats the model Apple deserted
Look at what Ford’s facet of the business really earns and the distinction is onerous to miss. Ford carries a market capitalization of about $57 billion, which is a little more than 1% of Apple’s roughly $4.9 trillion. It lost money over the previous twelve months. And on Friday it recalled more than 565,000 Broncos over a wiring drawback that can begin an engine fire.
Building automobiles is a capital-hungry, low-margin business. Apple would have entered it as a newbie.
Selling the software program layer into it is the reverse commerce. After all, Apple’s companies section produced an all-time report of about $31 billion in income in the fiscal second quarter (the period ended March 28, 2026), up about 16% 12 months over 12 months, and companies carried a gross margin close to 75% in fiscal 2025 against about 36% for merchandise.
Investors should preserve perspective, though. Apple hasn’t disclosed what Ford pays, and a mapping license on one vehicle platform launching in 2027 arguably won’t show up as a line anybody can discover in the companies quantity.
The worth here is attain, not a price. Apple Maps has been an iPhone function since 2012, helpful primarily to people already inside the ecosystem. Embedded in a Ford, it becomes something a driver makes use of whether or not they own an iPhone — and every mile pushed feeds map information back.
This comes at a time when Apple’s business already has robust momentum. Fiscal second-quarter income rose 17% 12 months over 12 months to $111.2 billion and earnings per share climbed 22% to $2.01, with iPhone setting a March-quarter report. Growth like that came after fiscal 2025 income grew about 6% for the full 12 months, so the high line has accelerated sharply.
There are dangers, of course. Ford could promote fewer of these automobiles than it hopes, the 2027 timeline could slip, and other automakers may choose Android Automotive, the competing system from Google mum or dad Alphabet, which already sits in some of Ford’s rivals.
So what do I make of it? A small deal in {dollars}, and a significant one in direction. Apple has now purchased its manner into automobiles through software program and companies, increasing its attain and rising its optionality for future growth alternatives.
Shares commerce around $333 as of this writing, close to their report high, at about 40 instances earnings. That is a premium price for a company this dimension, and I’d say the stock is a maintain rather than a discount here.
But I own it, and Thursday is a cheap illustration of why. The car program appeared like a failure in 2024. Two years later, Apple is in the dashboard of one of Ford’s most important new automobiles.
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Daniel Sparks and his purchasers have positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure coverage.
