Apple's AI search deal with the Times could reshape publisher licensing. Talks continue as the stock sits range-bound, with the OpenAI lawsuit still the primary leverage point.
The New York Times Co. shares ticked up 1.2% in premarket trading Friday, a modest move that belies the weight of the question hanging over the stock: will Apple bake the Times into its AI search product, and at what price?
The Times has been the most aggressive publisher in the AI copyright fight, suing OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023 over the use of its articles to train ChatGPT. But the company has also signaled it is open to licensing deals. CEO Meredith Kopit Levien told investors on the February earnings call that the Times was in active discussions with multiple AI companies, though she did not name Apple.
Apple's AI strategy is still taking shape. The company has struck deals with some publishers – News Corp, Condé Nast, NBC News – to train Apple Intelligence on their archives. The Times is a conspicuous holdout, and the gap matters because Apple's Siri and Spotlight search now surface AI-summarized news results on iPhone.
The calculus for the Times is a balance of leverage and risk. The Times has the deepest paywall in news – nearly 11 million subscribers – and a legal case that could set the terms for how AI companies use publisher content. Walking away from Apple preserves the lawsuit's credibility. Signing a deal would bring cash that could offset the erosion of search referral traffic, which has already fallen sharply since Google's AI Overviews launched.
A person familiar with the talks said the two sides have held multiple meetings but are not close to a deal. The person asked not to be named because the discussions are private. The Times declined to comment. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
The stock has been range-bound for months, caught between the promise of a licensing windfall and the risk that AI summarization cannibalizes the Times' core subscription business. The company's Alpha Score sits at 53 out of 100, a
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