Apple Reportedly Cuts Some Engineers' Daily AI Budgets to $200 From $300

Apple is trimming employee AI budgets as part of a cost-cutting effort, according to Bloomberg, and is weighing a $100 daily cap for some engineering teams after lowering the limit for others in October.

The allowance level is the number a finance team sets for each employee, and Apple has cut it once with deeper cuts under consideration. The report said few workers used their full $300 a day, and Apple did not say what its employees spend, so the size of any saving is not public.

Who is capped, and at what level?

Many groups outside engineering already face a $100 daily cap, the report said, and Apple has considered lowering that to as little as $25 for some teams. Staff who believe a limit will keep them from doing their jobs can ask senior executives for an exemption. Apple declined to comment.

What would a cut save?

By The Denominator’s arithmetic, a team of 100 engineers who hit the cap every working day for 250 days would spend $7.5 million a year at $300 and $5 million at $200 (an illustration, not a reported case). The report said few workers used their full $300, which would make the actual saving smaller. Apple did not say what its employees spend on AI tools.

Where does it sit in Apple’s costs?

Apple’s fiscal 2026 annual report puts research and development expense at $45.8 billion, up 32%, and attributes the rise to higher infrastructure costs, including investments in AI, and to headcount-related expenses. Total operating expenses rose 22% to $75.5 billion.

The caps are one control inside a cost base that is still growing. They govern what each employee can spend a day, not what Apple spends on AI infrastructure.

A company that sets a daily AI allowance can test it against two numbers: how many of its employees reach the limit, and how many ask for an exemption.