A bit exaggerated, no?
Out of the top 5 big tech companies (Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft) I would only describe it as the lifeblood of Meta and Alphabet. While the others also have ad revenue streams, they neither depend on it nor is it their biggest source of revenue.
as of yet
Pull up a screenshot of the iPad App Store home page from 2 years ago and look at it today. First thing you see is an ad.
Gambling ads are "paused" for now. [1]
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/26/23425637/apple-pauses-ga...
Apple Maps expected to show ads this year [2]
[2] https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/08/21/apple-maps-could-...
yes that what rumors/speculation is. I have little doubt of it not turning out to be true.
They made money selling ads too, but I know that just ads on their sites pulled $11k an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If I remember correctly it was only a quarter of a billion unique visitors a month as well, back then.
And believe me when I say I see their stuff mentioned on HN at least a couple of times a week, you've used their sites.