Welcome to 9to5Mac Daily for Thursday, January 15, 2026. I'm your host Chance Miller. We are sponsored this week by Stuff the To do list app that helps you get everything out of your head and into a simple and elegant system. Leading us today, Apple struck its deal with Google to power future AI features this week and now Ming Chi Kuo reports that Apple is gearing up to mass produce its in house AI server chips soon. Kuo says that Apple's self developed AI server chips will enter mass production in the second half of 2026 and its own data centers will begin construction and operation in 2027. Kuo says that this indicates Apple anticipates significant growth in on device AI demand starting next year. There have been rumors for years that Apple has planned to develop its own AI focused server class chips, so now it seems like those plans are moving forward into production. And whatever critics may have lobbed at Apple for its slow AI start and software quality, one undisputed current strength of the company is that Silicon Team Apple Silicon is a core part of the iPhone, iPad and Mac and gets better year after year. Now that accomplished silicon team has its sights set on these AI server chips, there's no reason to think that Apple can't apply its expertise in custom silicon to this category. Apple's AI server chips will presumably be used to power its private cloud compute infrastructure, which is what it uses to power cloud based AI features used by Apple devices. Next up Today the United States was one of a handful of countries to escape Spotify's recent price increases, but now that luck is coming to an end. The previous price increase was implemented in a number of countries around the world, but the United States was spared at least for a few months. Now Spotify says that its pricing in the United States is increasing for its Premium plan from 1199 per month to 1299 per month. Spotify says it's updating its pricing to quote keep delivering a great experience. Naturally, because of Spotify's announcement of this price increase, its shares have already increased 3% in pre market trading as of Thursday morning. For comparison's sake, Apple Music is priced at $10.99 per month and is also included at even lower prices as part of Apple's Apple one bundles. Spotify is also reiterating the benefits of subscribing to its premium plan, including ad free music listening, the ability to download music offline, you can play songs in any order, use AI to create playlists, and more. So again, that price increase goes into effect for Spotify Premium subscribers next month, going from $11.99 to $12.99. 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Running out today Last week, Apple officially announced that Chase is set to take over Apple Card, ending its deal with Goldman Sachs. A new report from the Wall Street Journal, based on conversations with 20 people familiar with the matter, goes in depth on what Apple told people was an unhappy marriage with Goldman Sachs. According to the report, Apple wanted Goldman Sachs to approve nearly all applicants for Apple Card. This led to Goldman Sachs approving a higher than normal number of subprime borrowers, that is people generally considered to have a credit score below 660. More than 30% of Apple Card balances are to people who fall into that category. That's actually a higher percentage than many banks who specialize in subprime lending. The report continues, saying that once Apple officially sent a proposal to Goldman Sachs to end their relationship, the company began conversations with other issuers. In its pitches, Apple said that its relationship with Goldman Sachs was basically an unhappy marriage. It said the two companies were willing to stay together, but no one likes being married to someone who doesn't want to be married to them. Apple, Goldman Sachs and other issuers also considered using a private credit fund to take on Apple Card balances. These types of lenders have increasingly been turned to for complex bespoke financing deals across Wall street and have backed consumer lending. But a deal this big and complex would have been new ground. The Wall Street Journal says Apple approached a boutique investment bank to help find a fund and approached a small fintech company about a deal with a private credit partner. Ultimately, those efforts did not come to fruition. Goldman had hoped that Apple would make a decision on who would take over Apple card by early March 2025. Then conversations between that new partner and Goldman could begin to discuss the transition. Apple, however, did not meet that timeline. Goldman executives reportedly felt that it was because Apple wasn't following through on what it needed to do. At one point during the negotiations, Apple was reportedly writing three contracts one one with Chase, one with American Express, and one with Synchrony. Synchrony was apparently convinced it was getting the deal and started exploring how to make the card turnover as low cost as possible. In May 2025, however, Apple reportedly told Chase that it was its preferred partner. At the same time, Apple then reached out to Capital One and told its executives that a deal was imminent, but it had one last chance to get in. Capital One said it was focused on its acquisition of Discover, but nonetheless did take meetings with Apple and Goldman Sachs as late as June. Capital One internally was aware that it was probably just being used for Apple to broker better terms out of Chase. So ultimately, Apple did end up going with JPMorgan Chase, who also secured protection in the event that car delinquencies spiked or performance deteriorated in the period after the banks signed the contract. Chase also negotiated for the right to walk away before the deal closed. And finally, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Apple Card program for Goldman Sachs actually recently started looking profitable. That's six years after Apple Card first launched in 2019. Ultimately, however, Goldman exited the consumer finance business altogether and including offloading Apple Card. The transition from Goldman Sachs to Chase is expected to occur over the next two years, and Apple has said it will provide more details as the deal progresses. That wraps up another episode of 9-5 Mac Daily. As always, you can find all of the latest Apple news on 9to5mac.com. Follow along with me on threads ChanceHmiller and we'll be back tomorrow for a new episode of 9-5 Mac Daily.
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