Apple is taking a distinct path from many other tech stocks. The major risks tied to the AI boom appear largely irrelevant to the company. Bolstered by robust revenue growth reported in January and upcoming new product launches in March, Apple’s outlook remains promising and potentially very bright.
Ben Gran for The Motley Fool:
New research from Bloomberg shows that Apple stock is becoming less correlated with the Nasdaq-100 index, reaching its lowest level of correlation since 2006. That means Apple’s performance is becoming less like that of other tech companies. If other tech stocks go down, Apple might go up — and could be a safer choice if you’re worried about a possible AI stock bubble or the recent AI-driven tech stock sell-off.
Investors have been driven by two conflicting narratives about tech stocks in the past few months. The first: Investors are concerned that major AI companies like Microsoft are over-investing in AI data centers and digital infrastructure. The second: Investors are selling software stocks in fear that AI will replace or disrupt most software as a service (SaaS) companies.
Apple seems to be avoiding this entire debate… Although the company faces a few AI-related risks, such as its struggles to create an effective new AI-powered Siri, Apple might be immune to the current AI stock volatility.
Instead of worrying about AI, Apple seems focused on its core business of selling products — and business is good… New products are in the pipeline, too.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup.
As we wrote last month, “Apple and, indeed, the entire U.S. economy, are primed to roar in 2026!”
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I would like to know who decided that everyone wants A.I. on all their Apple devices. A.I. is highly overrated. What’s so praiseworthy about tech companies overspending on data centers they’re not even sure will be profitable? Just because Apple didn’t follow every other major tech company on throwing away money on A.I., does it mean that Apple won’t make money? So far, no tech company building a data center is getting more returns than what it is spending. I’m confident with Apple’s strategy. Keep capex low and spend money on what precisely is needed. I prefer Apple’s conservative approach to A.I. because I don’t feel a need for it, and I certainly don’t want it forced upon me.
APPLE AI might be highly overrated, but the amount of work that I have saved leveraging the main frontier models (ChatGPT, Claude, and Genie) is phenomenal. ChatGPT for discussing technology and making strategic plans, Claude for coding, and Genie for automating stuff, makes work fun again.
How AI proceeds and exactly how it monetizes are uncertainties, but I don’t think AI is overrated at all.
The one anecdotal story above is one of scores where productivity is multiplied. It’s only going to get more dense with such stories.
The real question in time is displacement (job shifting/losses) and control. AI Agents’ functionality may likely become concerning, imo. Security is likely to be tested/changed/bolstered. “AI Agent Swarms” will be busy doing “good things” and not-so good things.
If AAPL can find a way to couple invention with AI (forget renewed Siri), the company could be in a great place to monetize…maybe more than the LLM providers?