Apple Becomes Apple Again

"AI leaders were hit by investors because they were no longer attractive, even though they had been just two months ago. Apple ( NASDAQ: AAPL), which has never launched its own AI products, is doing very well in the stock market. Its shares are up 36% in the last six months. The S&P is only 9% higher in the same period. Amazon has barely kept up with the S&P by the same measurement. Oracle ( NASDAQ: ORCL) is down 42%."

"Apple was criticized for not having an advanced AI-driven version of its Siri interactive iPhone features. The product was scheduled for release on an early version of iOS this year. This was delayed over and over. Apple AI engineers moved to competing firms. Apple finally decided to use Google's Gemini AI product to integrate into Apple Intelligence. Gemini has been well reviewed and is seen as a strong competitor to OpenAI, the market leader, which seemed impossible until the end of last year."

Market concern over massive AI investments and intense competition caused investor sell-offs among prominent AI-focused companies. Apple, which has not launched its own AI products, rose 36% in the last six months while the S&P climbed 9%, Amazon roughly matched the S&P, and Oracle fell 42%. Apple faced criticism and repeated delays for Siri-related AI features and lost engineers to competitors. Apple licensed Google's Gemini for integration into Apple Intelligence at an estimated $1 billion per year, giving Google broad distribution across Apple devices. Major AI players invested heavily—up to $100 billion annually—with slow integration into paid products, pressuring stocks such as Microsoft and Nvidia.

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