Apple Increasing Manufacturing for iPhone 16, Report Says

In 2011, Apple released its first device that worked with its Siri artificial intelligence voice assistant, the iPhone 4S. At the time, the new feature was the talk of tech town, and helped sales more than double over the previous year’s launch weekend. Fast-forward more than a decade, and Apple may be gearing up for another AI-inspired boom.

Apple is increasing manufacturing orders for its next batch of iPhone chips, according to a report in Taiwanese outlet CTEE and translated by MacRumors. The orders, placed to partner manufacturer TSMC, reach as high as 100 million units, as much as 12% more than last year’s initial orders.

Apple representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The iPhone maker’s seemingly bullish plans suggest that it expects excitement over AI technologies to at least partially drive increased tech sales over the all-important holiday shopping season. Technology in general has dominated many of the top holiday shopping lists over the years, but it’s becoming clear that tech companies expect the excitement over AI may push that demand into overdrive.

Other manufacturers, such as Microsoft, AMD, Intel and Nvidia, have also signaled their expectations for an AI-powered boom in sales, rolling out newly branded products they often call AI PCs or Copilot Plus PCs, after Microsoft’s AI. (For hands-on CNET reviews of generative AI products including Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, along with AI news, tips and explainers, see our AI Atlas resource page.)

Apple, for its part, will likely drive demand even more because of its product lineup. When the company announced its Apple Intelligence technology last month, it limited compatibility to the premium $999 iPhone 15 Pro and $1,199 iPhone 15 Pro Max. That suggests anyone who wants to run Apple Intelligence on their iPhones will likely have to upgrade, likely to the iPhone 16 when it’s announced in a couple months.

Apple said it plans to make its Apple Intelligence available in beta as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia this fall in the US.

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