Apple's Slow AI Pace Becomes a Strength As Market Grows Weary of Spending
- Reference: 0180348649
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/12/09/2118205/apples-slow-ai-pace-becomes-a-strength-as-market-grows-weary-of-spending
- Source link:
> Shares of Apple were battered earlier this year as the iPhone maker faced repeated complaints about its [1]lack of an artificial intelligence strategy . But as the AI trade faces increasing scrutiny, that hesitance has [2]gone from a weakness to a strength -- and it's showing up in the stock market. Through the first six months of 2025, Apple was the second-worst performer among the Magnificent Seven tech giants, as its shares tumbled 18% through the end of June. That has reversed since then, with the stock soaring 35%, while AI darlings like Meta Platforms and Microsoft slid into the red and even Nvidia underperformed. The S&P 500 Index rose 10% in that time, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index gained 13%. [...] As a result, Apple now has a $4.1 trillion market capitalization and the second biggest weight in the S&P 500, leaping over Microsoft and closing in on Nvidia. The shift reflects the market's questioning of the hundreds of billions of dollars Big Tech firms are throwing at AI development, as well as Apple's positioning to eventually benefit when the technology is ready for mass use.
"It is remarkable how they have kept their heads and are in control of spending, when all of their peers have gone the other direction," said John Barr, portfolio manager of the Needham Aggressive Growth Fund.
Bill Stone, chief investment officer at Glenview Trust Company, added: "While they most certainly will incorporate more AI into the phones over time, Apple has avoided the AI arms race and the massive capex that accompanies it." His company views Apple's stock as "a bit of an anti-AI holding."
[1] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/01/07/1650247/apples-ai-is-proving-its-anything-but-intelligent
[2] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-slow-ai-pace-becomes-104658095.html
Its really like the gold rush (Score:2)
with AI. The frenzy is real, people died some became rich. Most of those who became rich in the gold rush were the merchants that supplied the miners. But if all you a doing is spending your strength trying to out travel the other guy to the claim, you might want to think about what you are doing, because most of those guys didn't win.
We'll see (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple nowadays is bound to avoid any huge missteps, because it has become a very conservative company.
Granted they blew some on the Vision Pro, but not much, for them. They folded on the electric car project, which now seems like a shame as Tesla is vulnerable.
What revolutionary product has Apple launched since Steve Jobs died? It has been 14 years, and I'm still waiting.
Huh. Do nothing = win? (Score:2)
Do nothing = win? Curious strategy.
Well, not exactly nothing. They've tried "AI" and quite didn't get it. And parts of me are glad, I don't want / need another layer of crazy on top of the UI.
World's starting to "get" that all AI is right now is a handy research assistant that hallucinates a lot and a painter that paints a lot like a failed Austrian artist of the 1920's.
Can't wait for this particular bubble pop. Take out the crypto bros while you're at it, will ya?
Re: (Score:2)
Oh should this bubble pop, it will take out a *lot* with it.
A lot of tech companies have effectively retooled themselves so they don't know how to keep being a functional business without the AI hype spending.
The level of dedication to the LLM game dwarfs the dot-com bubble, and so too will the negative consequences...
Correction (Score:2)
Market gets weary of AI.
Correction to the Correction (Score:2)
The market didn't get weary of AI, the market was never spending enough on AI products to justify hundreds of billions of dollars per year in AI datacenter costs in the first place. I mean, the market might be spending that amount yearly 10 years from now (nobody knows), but the GPUs being bought now have to win back their costs before they depreciate in 4-5 years, not to mention the costs of the electricity to run them, which is opex.
Basically, the whole AI datacenter spend is done with a "build it and