Apple AAPL reclaimed its position as the world's most valuable publicly traded company on Friday after its market capitalization surpassed Nvidia's.
Apple shares climbed to an all-time high of $334.99, lifting the company's market value to approximately $4.88 trillion.
Nvidia shares fell more than 3% in early trading, reducing the AI chipmaker's market capitalization to about $4.84 trillion.
Nvidia had held the title of the world's most valuable company since June 2025, when it overtook Microsoft.
The chipmaker also became the first company to reach a $5 trillion market capitalization in October.
The two technology companies have taken different paths this year.
Apple shares have gained 22% in 2026, outperforming the broader market as investors responded positively to the company's artificial intelligence strategy and relatively modest capital spending model.
Nvidia, by comparison, has risen about 7% this year. The company's shares have lagged as investor attention shifted toward memory chips and data center infrastructure, benefiting companies such as Micron Technology and Sandisk.
Apple's return to the top of the market value rankings comes after the company was widely viewed as trailing many of its technology peers in the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.
The milestone also arrives as Chief Executive Tim Cook prepares to hand leadership of the company to hardware executive John Ternus in September.
Last month, Apple introduced a long-delayed overhaul of Siri, positioning the upgraded digital assistant as a key component of its effort to narrow the gap with larger technology rivals and emerging AI-focused companies.
Some analysts believe Apple's installed base of iPhone users and the personal data stored on those devices could become a significant competitive advantage for its artificial intelligence strategy by enabling Siri to deliver more personalized and capable responses.
However, they also note that much of that data remains protected within Apple's operating systems because of the company's privacy policies, requiring Apple to find ways to leverage the information while maintaining those protections.
HSBC upgraded Apple to Buy from Hold on Friday and raised its price target to $366 from $260, implying approximately 10% upside from Thursday's closing price.
Analyst Nicolas Cote-Colisson said in a note to clients, "We believe that the launch of AI features and a strong product pipeline have the potential to drive a major upgrade cycle."
According to HSBC, Apple can continue benefiting from artificial intelligence through the upcoming expansion of Apple Intelligence, its AI platform for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users.
"Apple is now at an operational turning point: not only can the company stay away from the (too) high capex debate (it only invests 2.5% of its [estimated 2026] sales vs 39% for hyperscalers)…it is also well placed to leverage its 2.5 [billion] installed device base with its forthcoming revamped Apple Intelligence," Cote-Colisson wrote.
He added that the new agentic Siri AI is expected to launch later this year and could increase demand for Apple devices.
"This AI boost comes at the right moment, when we think Apple has one of its most innovative product pipelines in place," Cote-Colisson wrote.
The analyst also said Apple is expected to introduce its long-awaited foldable iPhone Ultra, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, later this year, developments that HSBC believes could further support demand for the company's products and its shares.
For the better part of a year, NVIDIA wore the crown as the most valuable company on earth. As of this morning, it has been dethroned by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction), the company Warren Buffett has bet more on than any other.
Per live market data on July 17, 2026, Apple’s market capitalization sits at roughly $4.88 trillion, edging NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) at about $4.85 trillion. The lead is slim enough to change hands in a single trading session, but for now the title belongs to Apple. Reuters noted this is a spot Apple last held in April 2025.
Buffett’s Biggest Bet, Quantified Apple is Warren Buffett’s largest holding. According to Berkshire Hathaway’s most recent 13F filing, as of March 31, 2026 and filed May 15, 2026, Apple remains Berkshire’s largest single holding by a wide margin: about 22% of the entire equity portfolio, some 227.9 million shares, valued at roughly $57.8 billion at the time of that filing. Buffett has trimmed the position over the past couple of years, yet Apple has stayed firmly at the top of Berkshire’s book. The man who once called Apple “probably the best business I know in the world” is watching that conviction pay off in the most public way possible.
How the Flip Happened Two things happened at once: Apple ran hard, and NVIDIA stalled.
Apple stock has climbed steadily. It is up 5.39% over the past week, 11.37% over the past month, and 22.81% year to date, capping a one-year gain of 59.21%. That is a remarkable run for a company many investors had written off as the sleepy, mature giant of Big Tech. Fueling the reacceleration: Q2 FY26 revenue of $111.18 billion, iPhone sales of $56.99 billion off what Tim Cook called “extraordinary demand for the iPhone 17 lineup,” and a fresh $100 billion buyback authorization disclosed in the company’s Q2 FY26 8-K.
NVIDIA, meanwhile, has gone flat, essentially unchanged over the past month and up 11.34% year to date, a fraction of Apple’s climb.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Apple didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
This comes amid a sharp pullback across semiconductor and AI-infrastructure stocks, the same leverage-driven unwind that has rattled names like Micron and Corning. On the most recent trading day, NVIDIA fell 1.5%, more than Apple’s 0.96% decline. When the AI darlings sell off and the cash machine holds firmer, gaps this narrow close fast.
Too Close to Call A market-cap crown that changes hands by a percentage point or two is a headline. Apple and NVIDIA are separated by a margin small enough that the standing could reverse by this afternoon. A single morning’s ranking should not be mistaken for a permanent shift in the balance of power. Both remain colossal, and both remain central to any large-cap portfolio.
NVIDIA’s ascent to number one was the defining market story of the AI era, proof that the picks-and-shovels supplier had become more valuable than the consumer giant that defined the previous decade. Apple retaking the top spot, even briefly, is a reminder that the AI trade cuts both ways, and that a company with a fortress balance sheet, enormous buybacks, and a billion-plus loyal customers still has plenty of firepower.
For Buffett, the moment is a quiet vindication. He was mocked for years for avoiding technology, then mocked again for piling into Apple so heavily, then second-guessed when he started trimming. Through all of it, Apple stayed his largest holding, and today it sits at the top of the global market-cap table. That is the Buffett playbook in miniature: find a wonderful business, buy an enormous amount of it, and let time do the work.
Whether Apple holds the crown through the close is anyone’s guess. The gap is too small to call. For this morning at least, the most valuable company on the planet sits atop Warren Buffett’s portfolio.
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Apple Inc. is again the biggest company in the world after wresting the title from Nvidia Corp. Sarah Hunt of Alpine Saxon Woods says talks about the growth of Apple and the AI trade on "Bloomberg Open Interest." -------- More on Bloomberg Television and Markets Like this video?
HomeIndustriesTech StocksTech StocksApple was once seen as behind the curve in AI, but now it’s getting more respect for its strategic choicesJuly 17, 2026, 10:58 a.m. ET
Apple’s stock has been crushing the market to a degree not seen in six years, and it just won over a new fan.
HSBC analyst Nicolas Cote-Colisson said more gains are in store for the stock, once viewed as an artificial-intelligence laggard. He has newfound respect for Apple’s place in the AI ecosystem.
About the Author
Hannah Pedone is a New York–based technology reporter for MarketWatch.
The company is letting its Big Tech peers pony up for research and development and then is ready to swoop in to grab the best models when the dust settles.
Ah, so that's why we didn't hear about ChatGPT at WWDC this year.
Bridget Carey is an award-winning reporter who helps you level-up your life -- while having a good time geeking out. Her exclusive CNET videos get you behind the scenes as she covers new trends, experiences and quirky gadgets. Her weekly video show, "One More Thing," explores what's new in the world of Apple and what's to come. She started as a reporter at The Miami Herald with syndicated newspaper columns for product reviews and social media advice. Now she's a mom who also stays on top of toy industry trends and robots. (Kids love robots.)
Expertise Consumer technology | Apple | Google | Samsung | Microsoft | Amazon | Meta | Social media | Mobile | Robots | Future tech | Immersive technology | Toys | Culture Credentials
Bridget has spent over 18 years as a consumer tech reporter, hosting daily tech news shows and writing syndicated newspaper columns. She's often a guest on national radio and television stations, including ABC, CBS, CNBC and NBC. Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI is full of astonishing accusations and details, with Apple alleging it uncovered a pattern of theft of Apple's trade secrets. Apple's complaint mostly points the finger at a few ex-Apple employees that now work at OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.
OpenAI has faced quite a number of lawsuits lately on how it does business, but Apple's suit brings a different twist. If this case goes to trial, it could reveal the secret hardware that OpenAI has long teased. A trial could seek damages if Apple's work is being used to help develop some sort of rival AI device. Would a lawsuit spill the beans on a device -- or several devices -- before OpenAI is ready to launch?
Watch this: Apple vs. OpenAI: These Lawsuit Details Are Wild
05:58
This week's episode of One More Thing, embedded above, goes into the juicy details of the suit and what happens next. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he's not afraid of Apple, but maybe he should be. Taking rivals to court is part of the Apple playbook, and the company knows how to do it well.
The fight could also drag in a few famous Apple faces. Apple's former design chief, Jony Ive, is now working on making AI gadgets for OpenAI. That means Apple lawyers might call to the stand the former designer of the iPhone, to see if he used information stolen from Apple. (Awkwaaard.)
For more One More Thing, subscribe to our YouTube page to catch Bridget Carey breaking down the latest Apple news and issues every Friday.
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Bridget Carey is an award-winning reporter who helps you level-up your life -- while having a good time geeking out. Her exclusive CNET videos get you behind the scenes as she covers new trends, experiences and quirky gadgets. Her weekly video show, "One More Thing," explores what's new in the world of Apple and what's to come. She started as a reporter at The Miami Herald with syndicated newspaper columns for product reviews and social media advice. Now she's a mom who also stays on top of toy industry trends and robots. (Kids love robots.) See full bio
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McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
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As Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock surged to a new all-time high on July 17, Nicolas Cote Colisson, a Wall Street analyst from HSBC Holdings PLC ADR (NYSE: HSBC), has signaled further upside over the next 12 months.
Cote upgraded AAPL stock to a Buy rating in a note to clients on July 16. He also lifted the firm’s 12-month price target for AAPL stock to $366 from $260, thereby signaling a potential 9.82% upside.
The analyst now sees the company entering a phase where operational momentum and product innovation converge. Cote pointed to Apple’s relatively light capital spending, about 2.5% of projected 2026 sales, compared to hyperscalers pouring 39% of sales into infrastructure.
The analyst argued Apple’s edge lies in monetizing its massive 2.5 billion-device installed base through an upgraded Apple Intelligence rollout. Furthermore, the analyst noted that the company’s upcoming standout releases, including iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Pro Max, and an iPhone Air slated for April 2027, could boost AAPL stock price.
Most importantly, the analyst noted that AAPL stock could be bolstered by the upcoming book-style foldable iPhone.
“AI boost comes at the right moment, when we think Apple has one of its most innovative product pipelines in place,” Cote noted.
Is AAPL a good stock to buy in 2026? As HSBC’s Cote signaled further upside, Edison Lee, a Wall Street analyst from Jefferies, reiterated a Hold rating. Lee set the firm’s 12-month price target for Apple stock at $299.88, thus suggesting a possible 10.02% downside.
At press time, 30 Wall Street analysts surveyed by TipRanks had set an average 12-month price target of about $328.69, representing a potential 1.37% downside. Nonetheless, these analysts have issued a Moderate Buy rating for AAPL stock.
AAPL stock forecast. Source: TipRanks. The Moderate Buy rating from Wall Street analysts comes amid supportive Apple Intelligence news. For instance, China’s Cyberspace Administration cleared Apple Intelligence for launch.
Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said that price hikes for Apple products are unavoidable due to these rising memory chip costs. Moreover, rising demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is benefiting suppliers such as Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), while major buyers of memory chips face higher costs.
Year-to-date (YTD) AAPL stock has surged over 22%, trading at about $333.26 at press time.
Apple stock YTD chart. Source: Finbold As such, if the high-bandwidth memory stocks keep rising over the next 12 months, Cote’s target for Apple could be achieved and vice versa.
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Apple surpassed Nvidia in market value on Friday to reclaim its spot as the world's most valuable company.
Shares of Nvidia dropped more than 3% and its market value dipped to $4.84 trillion in early morning trading. Apple last traded at a $4.88 trillion market value.
The two companies have had very different fortunes in 2026, with the iPhone maker surging 22% this year, while Nvidia has gained about 7%.
The leading AI chipmaker, which has rallied since the launch of ChatGPT, has largely sat on sidelines in 2026, as Wall Street pivots to the memory chip and infrastructure stage of the datacenter buildout. That's benefitted chipmaking stocks such as Micron Technology and Sandisk.
Read more CNBC tech newsElon Musk's Memphis AI empire is the epicenter of the data center backlashChinese startup Moonshot AI unveils Kimi model it says rivals OpenAI, AnthropicSpaceX stock falls after Starship test flight abortedMicrosoft's Nadella criticizes Anthropic's Fable for being 'editorially controlled'This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
Apple sent letters to about 40 former employees who now work at OpenAI, demanding that they preserve documents and communications and meet with Apple lawyers, the Financial Times reported Friday (July 17), citing unnamed sources.
The move is part of Apple’s efforts to secure evidence for the lawsuit it filed last week against OpenAI and two of the artificial intelligence company’s employees, alleging that they stole trade secrets, according to the report.
About 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, per the report.
Neither Apple nor OpenAI immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
Apple filed its lawsuit July 10, alleging that OpenAI, Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan and technical staff member Chang Liu stole trade secrets from Apple to support OpenAI’s development of devices. Tan and Liu are former Apple employees.
Apple said in the lawsuit that it doesn’t know what OpenAI did with the information it alleges was stolen by Tan and Liu but claimed that “at every level, from members of its technical staff to its chief hardware officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets and confidential information.”
With its lawsuit, the company is demanding that OpenAI stop the practices alleged in the suit, destroy any proprietary materials and redesign its upcoming products so that they don’t use any Apple technology.
In a July 10 post on social platform X, OpenAI Director of Strategic Communications Drew Pusateri said: “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”
Our statement in response to this suit: We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere. https://t.co/lIxGW6hyz5
— Drew Pusateri (@drewpusateri) July 10, 2026
It was reported Sunday (July 12) that Apple’s lawsuit came as the tech world scrambles to develop AI-powered devices that go a step beyond the smartphone and that the winner of this race could play the same role Apple now plays in the consumer market.
OpenAI released its first hardware product Wednesday (July 15). The product is a $230 programmable macropad for developers managing AI coding agents.
It was reported Tuesday (July 14) that the company is developing a portable smart speaker that serves as an AI companion. OpenAI aims to reveal the device this year and launch it in 2027.
In the latest trading session, Apple (AAPL - Free Report) closed at $333.26, marking a +1.76% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.51% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a drop of 0.2%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 1.47%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of iPhones, iPads and other products had gained 10.66% outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 2.99% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.53%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Apple in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's earnings report is set to be unveiled on July 30, 2026. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $1.88, showcasing a 19.75% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $108.79 billion, up 15.69% from the year-ago period.
AAPL's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $8.76 per share and revenue of $479.03 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +17.43% and +15.11%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Apple. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.05% higher. Apple currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Apple is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 37.39. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 21.98.
Meanwhile, AAPL's PEG ratio is currently 2.84. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The average PEG ratio for the Computer - Micro Computers industry stood at 2.84 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Computer - Micro Computers industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 18, this industry ranks in the top 8% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.
Warren Buffett stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB +0.98%)(BRKA +0.73%) at the end of 2025, but he still speaks out on some of the conglomerate's investments. And in a CNBC interview on Wednesday, he made clear that his view of Apple (AAPL +1.72%) hasn't budged. It remains one of his favorite businesses, he said, even with a change at the top just weeks away.
That change is no small thing. Apple announced in April that longtime CEO Tim Cook will become executive chairman on Sept. 1, handing the chief executive job to hardware engineering chief John Ternus. A leadership handoff at one of the world's most valuable companies would normally give investors pause.
Buffett, whose Berkshire owns more than $70 billion in Apple stock, doesn't seem worried.
So does his continued conviction make the stock a buy near its record high? Let's take a look.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
A business Buffett knows well Buffett first bought Apple in 2016, and it has grown into Berkshire's single biggest position. It accounts for about 22% of the conglomerate's roughly $263 billion equity portfolio, according to its most recent quarterly filing, making it Berkshire's largest holding by a wide margin.
More telling still, Berkshire left the stake untouched in the first quarter, its first full period under new CEO Greg Abel. After years of steady trimming, standing pat amounts to a quiet vote of confidence.
Part of Buffett's ease with the succession may be that Apple's staying power doesn't rest on any one executive. Ternus has been at the company since 2001 and has run hardware engineering through the iPhone's most important years.
And the numbers he inherits are strong. In its fiscal second quarter (the period ended March 28, 2026), Apple's revenue rose 17% year over year to $111.2 billion, and earnings per share climbed 22% to $2.01. Both were March-quarter records.
iPhone revenue jumped 22% to a record $57 billion, powered by demand for the iPhone 17 lineup. Services revenue, meanwhile, hit an all-time high of about $31 billion, up roughly 16% year over year.
That services business is the quiet engine here, and it's the piece I'd watch most. It carries a gross margin near 75%, against about 39% for products, so as it outgrows the rest of the company, it steadily lifts Apple's overall profitability.
Zoom out, and the trajectory is the real story. Apple's revenue grew just 6% in fiscal 2025, then accelerated to that 17% pace in the March quarter. Management has guided for 14% to 17% growth again in the current quarter, which Apple will report later this month.
After several sluggish years, in other words, this is a business reaccelerating. That helps explain why Buffett is content to leave it as Berkshire's anchor holding through a CEO change.
Today's Change
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The price of that conviction But is the stock overvalued?
Apple stock climbed about 4% on Wednesday to roughly $328, a fresh record, and it is up more than 55% over the past year, well ahead of the S&P 500. At that price, shares trade at close to 40 times earnings -- a steep premium to the broader market's roughly 25. Even on next year's expected profits, the multiple eases only to the mid-30s.
But I think Apple stock is worth its premium.
Not only is the business accelerating, but it's also built on an enduring, proven brand and a loyal customer base. Then there's the potential for AI to further accelerate both its products and services businesses, as it gives customers reasons to upgrade and potentially opens the door to entirely new product categories.
Additionally, Buffett's conviction is worth taking seriously. Not only is he a renowned investor, but he's putting his money where his mouth is -- and he hasn't sold any Apple shares this year.
So, is Apple a buy up here? I think so.
Sure, there are risks. But I agree with Buffett on this one. Apple is a stock worth owning. With that said, it's worth being clear that Berkshire hasn't been buying Apple stock at this level -- least not that we know of. So it's not fair to say that Buffett thinks Apple stock is a buy. But he certainly likes owning it -- and he likes owning a lot of it. Further, Berkshire's position size is arguably already borderline oversized, so it makes sense he isn't adding.
Bret Taylor, OpenAI chairman and Sierra CEO, joins CNBC's Kate Rooney to discuss the new AI agent tool, the future of enterprise AI spending, the Apple lawsuit, and more.
Apple (AAPL +4.01%) is about 4% away from a $5 trillion market cap. If the stock climbs from Wednesday's record close of $327.50 to about $340, the iPhone maker will become the second company in history, after Nvidia, to reach the mark. My prediction is that it happens before the end of 2026.
The math is simple. Reaching $5 trillion means adding roughly $190 billion in value, which works out to a share price around $340 -- a climb of about 4% from here.
Image source: Apple.
Apple has momentum working in its favor. Shares jumped 4% on Wednesday to a fresh all-time high, and the stock has now risen more than 60% from its 52-week low of $201.50.
The business is backing the move. Apple's revenue for its fiscal second quarter, the period ended March 28, rose 17% year over year to $111.2 billion, and earnings per share climbed 22%. The company's services business posted an all-time revenue record of $31 billion. Additionally, Apple's board also authorized an additional $100 billion in share repurchases in April, extending buybacks that steadily support demand for the stock.
There's another potential catalyst on the calendar, too. Apple typically reports its June-quarter results in late July, and another quarter of double-digit growth could give the stock the push that carries it the final 4%.
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Of course, the milestone isn't a given. Apple trades at about 38 times earnings -- a steep multiple that arguably leaves the stock vulnerable if growth disappoints. A 4% gain is small, but it isn't guaranteed.
Even so, the setup favors the milestone. Nvidia showed it can be done when it became the first company valued at $5 trillion last October, and Apple is now the world's second-most-valuable company, ahead of third-place Alphabet. With revenue growth accelerating, a record services business, and $100 billion in fresh buyback firepower, a 4% move looks like a low bar.
In short, I don't just think Apple will join the $5 trillion club; I think there's a good chance it will do so this year.
Daniel Sparks and his clients have positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Shares of Apple (AAPL +3.95%) jumped to a record high on Wednesday, following some positive developments for the tech titan.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
More AI models could be coming to the iPhone On Tuesday, CNBC reported that Apple was evaluating innovative technology that could shrink large artificial intelligence (AI) models to run directly on an iPhone.
PrismML, a tiny Silicon Valley start-up, licenses the technology from the California Institute of Technology. PrismML CEO Babak Hassibi said Apple is testing the tech's performance on its devices.
If those tests prove successful, Apple could bring the power of advanced AI models to iPhone users. It could also help Apple reduce its cloud computing costs if AI applications can run directly on its devices.
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And on Wednesday, news broke that the Cyberspace Administration of China would allow Apple to provide AI services in the populous country.
Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant Alibaba will integrate its Qwen AI model into Apple Intelligence. Baidu, China's internet search leader, will also work with Apple to develop AI features for its devices.
Apple's AI strategy is emerging Apple has largely stayed out of the AI model race, much to the benefit of its shareholders.
Rather than spending tens and even hundreds of billions of dollars to compete with model makers like OpenAI and Anthropic or hyperscalers like Google and Meta Platforms, Apple has sought to partner with AI leaders to bring their innovations to its users.
It's a smart, cost-effective strategy. And these recent developments are beginning to show that Apple can still benefit from AI without incurring massive costs.
Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, Baidu, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Kara Greenberg is a senior news editor for Investopedia, where she does work writing, editing, and assigning daily markets and investing news. Prior to joining Investopedia, Kara was a researcher and editor at The Wire. Earlier in her career, she worked in financial compliance and due diligence at Loomis, Sayles & Company, and The Bank of New York Mellon.
Published July 15, 2026
04:48 PM EDT
Apple shares have added about a fifth of their value in 2026. Cheng Xin / Getty Images
Key Takeaways Apple shares climbed to a fresh record Wednesday in the wake of reports the iPhone maker is considering buying an AI chip company.The stock has been on a roll lately amid hopes new releases and AI updates later this year could drive more gains. Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise.
The possibility that Apple could add an AI chip company to its portfolio sent its stock to fresh highs.
Shares of Apple (AAPL) climbed 4% Wednesday, closing above $327 to top a record set earlier this week. The Information reported Wednesday that the iPhone maker is on the hunt to buy a chip company that can help it realize its AI ambitions.12 The stock was one of the top performers in the S&P 500 as stocks rose broadly.
Apple has approached several chip startups about a buyout after facing challenges with its in-house AI servers, according to the report. Apple did not respond to Investopedia’s request for comment in time for publication.
Why This Matters to Investors Apple faces intense pressure to prove it’s making progress with AI, and a new chip deal could help boost confidence in its trajectory.
The iPhone maker’s stock has been on a roll lately. It has hit a series of record highs in recent weeks amid growing optimism about upcoming releases and ahead of the September rise of CEO John Ternus into the seat long held by Tim Cook.
In a note to clients yesterday, Morgan Stanley analysts pointed to hopes that recent price hikes and loyalty to Apple’s brand could help defend the company’s margins from the impact of rising memory prices amid an industrywide shortage of parts.3
Apple shares have added about a fifth of their value since the year began, making it the best-performing member of the Magnificent 7 in 2026 so far.
For more reporting from Investopedia on today’s market moves, click here.
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Apple (AAPL) is reportedly exploring acquisitions in the AI chip sector as it looks to strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities, according to The Inf
Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) are up 4% Wednesday afternoon to a fresh record of $327, extending a rally that now has Apple stock up 20% year to date (YTD). The move puts Apple on pace for its 15th intraday record of 2026 and lifts the company’s market value to nearly $5 trillion.
Apple has added more than half a trillion dollars in market value this month alone, leading the Dow Jones into mid-July. The move sits on top of a trailing-12-month P/E ratio of 39.67x, a premium multiple that raises the bar for the next leg higher. With shares now flirting with $330, the natural question for Apple investors is what it would actually take to punch through $350.
Catalyst: Citi Lifts AAPL’s Price Target to $365 The immediate spark is a fresh Wall Street endorsement. Citi analyst Asiya Merchant raised her AAPL price target to $365 from $315 on July 13, maintaining a Buy. Her thesis leans on record smartphone share of 25%, continued PC share gains, and pricing power evidenced by management’s gross margin guide of 48% to 49% despite the memory-chip shortage squeezing rivals that buy on the spot market.
Services stickiness is the other pillar. Apple posted an all-time Services revenue record of $30.98 billion in Q2 FY2026, alongside iPhone revenue of $56.99 billion and revenue growth of 17% year over year (YoY). A smarter Siri, framed as the tool that keeps users inside the ecosystem, is Citi’s perceived mechanism for compounding that recurring revenue.
What Would It Take for AAPL to Hit $350? From here, $350 is another meaningful leg higher, and the model math tells a nuanced story. Our internal framework pegs a base-case one-year target of $359 with a BUY rating and 10% upside, with a bull case of $411 and a bear case of $305. Citi is at $365, and JPMorgan sits at $345.
The tension is that Wall Street’s average target is only $317, which is already below where Apple stock trades. Apple has effectively run past the consensus estimate, so a move to $350 requires the bullish drivers to keep delivering: iPhone 17 momentum, Services growth in the mid-teens, and margin expansion despite input-cost headwinds. The prediction markets echo the caution, with only a 0.395 probability of AAPL hitting $344 during July.
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The bear case is worth noting for AAPL stock. It rests on the premium 39.67x valuation, that below-market consensus target, memory-cost pressure that could compress product gross margin, softer smartphone and PC end markets, and Apple’s recently filed lawsuit against OpenAI over alleged trade-secret theft. Investors weighing their position sizes should treat $350 as achievable but not automatic.
Peers and the Broader Rally Apple stock isn’t moving alone atop the Dow. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) are the index’s other July leaders for very different reasons. Goldman Sachs stock is up 30% YTD after posting record Q2 2026 diluted EPS of $20.98, and Chevron stock is up 19% YTD on the crude oil recovery.
Mega-cap tech is broadly participating, including NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), with NVIDIA stock up 13% YTD on sustained AI-infrastructure demand. For diversified exposure with Apple as a top holding, the NASDAQ 100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) captures the mega-cap-tech theme, though the ETF remains concentrated in a handful of names, which cuts both ways when leadership narrows.
What to Watch The next real test comes fast. Apple reports its Q3 FY2026 earnings on July 30, with the consensus estimate calling for EPS of $1.88, up 20% YoY. Citi frames the iPhone 18 launch in September as the key sentiment inflection for the second half, and Polymarket assigns a 97% probability that the launch happens this year.
Investors can watch for whether Apple’s gross margin guidance holds through the memory-cost squeeze, whether Services stays in the mid-teens growth zone, and whether the pace of the $100 billion buyback authorization keeps supporting the tape. Given the roughly 39x multiple and a consensus target sitting below the stock, investors should consider keeping their AAPL stock position sizes modest and adding on pullbacks rather than chasing record closes. A move to $350 is well within reach if the bullish drivers keep firing, but it’s the July 30 earnings report, not today’s tape, that could decide whether this rally will persist in the long run.
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I keep clicking buy on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction), and the hardware bears keep giving me reasons to do it again. Every quarter someone declares the iPhone cycle exhausted. Every quarter Apple hands me another record and I add to the position.
The conviction is simple. Apple sells hardware that a 2.5 billion active device installed base refuses to abandon, then rents that same base a growing bundle of high-margin services. Bears keep pricing this as a maturing phone company. I keep pricing it as a compounding annuity with a chip designer attached.
The Receipts I Keep Coming Back To Start with the hardware. In the March quarter, iPhone revenue hit $56.994 billion, a March record, with Tim Cook citing 22% year over year growth and 99% US customer satisfaction on the iPhone 17 family. Total revenue came in at $111.184 billion, up 16.6% year over year, with double-digit growth in every geographic segment. Demand like that speaks for itself.
Then Services. Revenue reached $30.976 billion at a 76.7% gross margin. That mix keeps expanding, and it keeps decoupling Apple’s earnings from any single phone launch. EPS of $2.01 beat the $1.9404 estimate, making it 8 consecutive quarters of beats.
The third leg is the capital return machine. The board authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback and lifted the dividend 4% to $0.27. Full fiscal year 2025 buybacks totaled $90.71 billion. On that shrinking share count, Apple posts 171.4% return on equity and 53.3% ROIC. Every dollar retained earns a return most companies cannot touch.
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Why Not the Obvious AI Alternative The name a tech-focused reader reaches for first these days is NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA). I own some, and I keep sending fresh cash to Apple anyway. One AI-focused podcast framed the setup plainly: “the market is actually in a way saying we want to pay less for Nvidia than a company like Apple that is very growth constrained” because with Apple “you know what you’re getting.” The hyperscalers are pouring capex into AI infrastructure with uncertain payback windows. Apple is spending on R&D at an accelerating rate, per Cook, while still returning tens of billions to me each quarter. Predictability at this scale is rare, and I will pay for it.
The Risk I Am Not Ignoring Greater China is the concern I sit with. The region softened to $14.49 billion in Q4 FY25 before recovering. The rebound has been fast: 33% growth in the first half of fiscal 2026 and a March record. Memory costs are climbing too, and Cook flagged a larger impact in the June quarter. Margins will feel it. The through-line still holds: an installed base compounding into a Services flywheel, backed by $62 billion in net cash. If you want to see how that Services momentum shows up in the numbers, our team pulled the receipts in 7 Stocks Powering the AI Boom (That Aren’t Chipmakers).
Why the Buy Button Stays Active Shares are up 51.53% over the past year and 1,300.24% over ten years at $314.86. I keep buying because the machine that produced those returns is still running: hardware people upgrade, services people pay for monthly, and a treasury that keeps buying its own stock back. The hardware bears will keep filing their obituaries. I will keep filing my trade tickets.
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Apple NASDAQ: AAPL has rallied sharply since late June, keeping the stock near record territory as investors look ahead to the company’s Q3 2026 earnings report, expected on June 30. At first glance, the setup heading into that report appears relatively straightforward.
Apple Today
$327.19 +12.33 (+3.92%)
As of 02:51 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$201.50▼
$328.53Dividend Yield0.33%
P/E Ratio39.59
Price Target$314.26
Analysts have been busy raising price targets, the stock has been hitting highs, and the market appears to be leaning into the thesis that Apple's ecosystem and pricing power will deliver the goods as its AI strategy ramps up.
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However, not everyone is convinced that this bet is safe. A growing number of voices are questioning whether Wall Street has gotten ahead of itself, pricing in an AI-driven future that Apple hasn't demonstrated it can deliver, while ignoring a set of very real, near-term cost pressures.
That gap between the optimism priced into the stock and the caution running through some of the underlying analysis is becoming harder to ignore, and this month's earnings report threatens to widen it further.
The "Toll Booth" Thesis Has a Hole in ItMuch of the bull case for Apple's AI positioning rests on what's often called the "toll booth" thesis: the idea that Apple doesn't need to build the best AI model because it owns the device and platform through which people will access AI, and can therefore extract value regardless of which model wins. It is a compelling argument, and one we have recently covered through the lens of Apple’s agentic AI opportunity.
The trouble is that the evidence for it actually working in practice is thin. Rather than monetizing AI usage directly, Apple is currently paying other companies for the AI models running inside its own ecosystem. That sounds more like a cost center than a toll booth.
Until that dynamic flips, and until Apple demonstrates it can turn its AI features into meaningful revenue, the thesis remains more theoretical than proven. Investors betting on it are, for now, betting on potential rather than results.
The Cost Pressures Are Not TheoreticalWhile the AI upside remains speculative, the cost side of Apple's story is anything but. Surging NAND and DRAM prices have already forced the company to raise prices across its Mac and iPad lineups, and speculation continues to build that iPhone pricing will follow suit later this year.
The KeyBanc team made this exact point earlier this week, as they downgraded Apple to Underweight—a rare, but worrying, outright bearish stance. The firm's analysts pointed to iPad price increases of $100 to $200 and MacBook increases of up to $300, arguing that products at this level tend to see demand fall by more than the size of the price increase. Their bigger worry is what happens when that same dynamic hits the iPhone. To give a sense of what that could look like, KeyBanc is expecting iPhone revenue growth to slow sharply in fiscal 2027, coming in well below the broader consensus.
Adding to the pressure, KeyBanc also flagged that U.S. carriers may pull back on device subsidies as costs rise, which would likely extend how long customers hold onto their phones before upgrading and could complicate Apple's growth story both domestically and internationally.
The Valuation Leaves Little Room for ErrorOverall MarketRank™86th Percentile
Analyst RatingModerate Buy
Upside/Downside3.8% Downside
Short Interest LevelHealthy
Dividend StrengthStrong
News Sentiment0.57 Insider TradingSelling Shares
Proj. Earnings Growth9.50%
See Full Analysis
Then there's the valuation itself. Apple currently trades at around 36 times forward earnings, which is one of the highest multiples among its mega-cap technology peers. That feels like a lot to pay for a company that doesn't yet have a clear AI-driven catalyst for either growth or margin expansion.
Add in a China business facing both slowing sales and margin pressures, and the risk-reward balance starts to look increasingly skewed to the downside.
Now, none of this means Apple's underlying business is broken. Its ecosystem stickiness remains one of the most powerful competitive moats in all of technology. That stickiness is arguably now doing more heavy lifting than the hardware itself as competition intensifies.
But stickiness alone may not be enough to continue justifying a premium multiple if Apple doesn’t convince investors in its upcoming earnings report that its AI initiatives are gaining momentum.
How to Think About the Upcoming ReportWith those earnings now just over two weeks away, the report is shaping up as a genuine test of which side of this argument is right. If Apple can show clear signs that its AI features are translating into stronger Services growth, resilient iPhone demand, or improving margins despite cost pressures, the bulls will have concrete evidence to point to.
However, if the report instead confirms the slowing growth and margin compression that skeptics like KeyBanc are forecasting, the stock's recent run toward all-time highs could look increasingly hard to justify.
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Have you been searching for a stock that might be well-positioned to maintain its earnings-beat streak in its upcoming report? It is worth considering Apple (AAPL - Free Report) , which belongs to the Zacks Computer - Micro Computers industry.
When looking at the last two reports, this maker of iPhones, iPads and other products has recorded a strong streak of surpassing earnings estimates. The company has topped estimates by 5.93%, on average, in the last two quarters.
For the last reported quarter, Apple came out with earnings of $2.01 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.92 per share, representing a surprise of 4.69%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $2.65 per share and it actually produced earnings of $2.84 per share, delivering a surprise of 7.17%.
Price and EPS Surprise
With this earnings history in mind, recent estimates have been moving higher for Apple. In fact, the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) for the company is positive, which is a great sign of an earnings beat, especially when you combine this metric with its nice Zacks Rank.
Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven.
The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier.
Apple currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.53%, which suggests that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This positive Earnings ESP when combined with the stock's Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) indicates that another beat is possibly around the corner. We expect the company's next earnings report to be released on July 30, 2026.
When the Earnings ESP comes up negative, investors should note that this will reduce the predictive power of the metric. But, a negative value is not indicative of a stock's earnings miss.
Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, though this is not the only reason why their shares gain. Additionally, some stocks may remain stable even if they end up missing the consensus estimate.
Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.
Apple has quietly published a rulebook for its new Maps ads, revealing a more curated approach than advertising giant Google.
The iPhone maker has not disclosed a launch date for Maps ads, which was announced earlier this year, beyond saying they would arrive “this summer” in the U.S. and Canada. However, the company has published advertiser documentation and Maps-specific ad policies, suggesting the rollout is approaching.
In a newly published Apple Advertising Services policy, effective as of July 14, 2026, the iPhone maker shares its rules for advertising on Apple Maps. Notably, it prohibits the broad category of home services businesses, like plumbing, electrical, locksmith, HVAC, pest control, roofing, and general contracting services, among others.
That sets Apple apart from Google, where Local Services Ads are one of the company’s largest local advertising categories. Apple’s policy suggests the company is initially limiting its ads to places with a physical presence that their customers actually visit.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment about the new rulebook.
Image Credits:Apple This approach could help make Apple’s ads feel more like organic map listings, rather than traditional paid search ads.
It could also save Apple some headaches as it gets its Apple Maps ads off the ground. Home services businesses, including locksmiths and garage door service providers, often require additional verification. Google, for instance, allows these categories, but requires initial verifications, follow-ups, and audits to remain in good standing.
Apple’s curated approach to its App Store is also spilling over into its newest advertising vertical. In addition to banning home services, the policy prohibits a handful of businesses from advertising on Maps, like cryptocurrency ATMs and bail bonds providers.
Apple is also taking a hands-on approach to approving ads for businesses offering medical services, as the policy notes these ads will be “evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”
These restrictions appear in a dedicated section of the new “Apple Advertising Services
News and Stocks, Maps, and Sports Programming Policies,” which details the rules around publishing ads across Apple’s first-party apps beyond the App Store.
The broader policy also prohibits deceptive or profane ads, political ads, and ads featuring weapons, violence, controlled substances, defamatory material, and more.
Although Apple may expand to other ad categories over time, its initial approach positions Maps and its ads as a more curated, navigation-focused product, rather than an extension of a web search engine.
Apple’s approach to displaying ads will also differ from Google; Apple said it would only show a single ad to users in its Maps search results. It noted that the advertised businesses would be clearly marked with a small blue halo around the pin, and labeled as an ad in the list of Suggested Places.
Apple also said that data about the ads that users interact with stays on the device and is not collected by the company or shared with third parties.
Another recent update to Apple’s Advertising Services Terms of Service also suggests that Apple could be planning to expand its Apple Apps to non-Apple-owned services, a report from Mobile Dev Memo noted. Apple has not confirmed any changes on that front, however.
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View of an Apple logo at an Apple store in Paris, France, April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Abdul Saboor/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
July 15 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab is looking to buy chip companies to bolster its efforts to make server processors for running AI, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Here are some details:
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The iPhone maker has approached chip startups to gauge their interest in a buyout and has spoken with bankers about possible deals, the report said.
Apple's interest comes as it faces challenges with the performance of its in-house AI servers, which currently run on internally designed M2 Ultra chips, according to The Information.
It had originally planned to ship a future version of its AI server chip, known internally as "Baltra", this year, but the project has been pushed back, people familiar with the matter told The Information.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Earlier this year, Apple tried running Google's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Gemini models on its internal servers as part of a Siri overhaul, but the Mac-based chips could not handle the large model, forcing the company to run parts of the revamped assistant on Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab chips in Google's cloud infrastructure, the report said.
Apple has historically avoided large acquisitions, last making a deal in January for Q.ai, an Israeli company working on AI technology for audio.
The company had $45.57 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of March 28, the end of its second quarter.
Last week, Apple said it plans to spend over $30 billion under a multi-year chip supply deal with Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab, bolstering its domestic sourcing.
Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) were stopped in their tracks when KeyBanc’s Brandon Nispel issued a downgrade to underweight from equal weight, citing valuation concerns. Indeed, it’s been quite a run for shares of Apple in recent months.
They’ve quietly become a Mag Seven top performer of sorts. But before you take profits over Nispel’s sell-equivalent rating (his price target suggests the stock could enter a bear market from current levels), I’d consider the possibility of a 2027 supercycle that might just help earnings grow enough to justify the seemingly high price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 38.4 times.
Cramer is almost always right in ignoring the Apple bears In any case, Jim Cramer isn’t at all worried about the latest Apple downgrade. Time and time again, the man has encouraged investors to stay the course with the name, and he’s been right to stay bullish, even as some bold sell-side analysts turned against the stock for one reason or another. In many ways, Cramer is right in that those who follow such calls just wind up missing big moves and having to repurchase at higher prices.
Of course, the “too high” valuation argument is the strongest it’s been in a while. But, at the same time, the stock is pricier for a reason: it’s about to enter the AI race and, this time, it might have what it takes to win, especially with its latest Apple Foundation Models, which aren’t just Google Gemini with a coat of Apple paint.
As Apple does its best to shrink down highly capable models to run on a device, I do think that the company might ultimately win the AI race as tokens go from fairly expensive to pretty much free when run on device.
Apple’s biggest AI breakthrough is right around the corner Arguably, shrinking models down to run at no cost might be the biggest breakthrough to hit the AI world since Claude Mythos or even the debut of ChatGPT-3.5. As the pace of AI’s progress begins to slow, Apple might be the quiet winner as the firm looks to bring the consumer world into its AI ecosystem.
As agentics and hyper-personalized, private AI come into their own, I think it’ll be tough to stop Apple in its tracks, especially now that it’s got the killer feature to convince the masses to upgrade as soon as possible and in spite of higher prices on components like DRAM and storage.
Once Apple looks to take control of the cloud, with its Baltra cloud chip in the works, I do think that the company might be one of the few companies that actually creates immense value while driving token costs to new depths. In any case, it seems like Apple will build the AI cloud compute it needs, rather than blowing tons of CapEx right off the bat and hoping there’s someone to sell excess compute to.
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Perhaps inverting the AI buildout is the way to go for optimal ROIs. While Apple is seldom first, it is best. And when it comes to AI, I do think that the firm will eventually have something that, if not the best, comes close to it, but at a fraction of the cost.
In any case, it’s clear Apple doesn’t need to be at the frontier to win in AI, as the market prioritizes prudent spending and the value AI provides behind the curtain.
The bottom line As the pieces of Apple’s AI puzzle finally come together while the firm readies for its biggest-ever year of hardware releases, I find it makes no sense to sell the stock just because its P/E is high. Cramer is right to shoot down the latest downgrade right in its tracks.
Aside from the Siri AI tailwind and a potential device supercycle, the margin gains to be had from Baltra in the cloud, as well as the likelihood that DRAM-induced price hikes won’t reverse when component prices drop, lead me to believe that Apple remains an incredibly timely bet.
If you sold the stock just because it looked expensive, you might have missed out on generational rallies.
Given the catalysts ahead, I think Apple stock isn’t just worth a hefty multiple, it might be worth a heftier one. Any way you look at it, Jim Cramer is right on the money as he ignores the advice of a lonely new bear in the analyst community.
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Wall Street watches a company's quarterly report closely to understand as much as possible about its recent performance and what to expect going forward. Of course, one figure often stands out among the rest: earnings.
Life and the stock market are both about expectations, and rising above what is expected is often rewarded, while falling short can come with negative consequences. Investors might want to try to capture stronger returns by finding positive earnings surprises.
Now that we know how important earnings and earnings surprises are, it's time to show investors how to take advantage of these events to boost their returns by utilizing the Zacks Earnings ESP filter.
The Zacks Earnings ESP, ExplainedThe Zacks Earnings ESP, or Expected Surprise Prediction, aims to find earnings surprises by focusing on the most recent analyst revisions. The basic premise is that if an analyst reevaluates their earnings estimate ahead of an earnings release, it means they likely have new information that could possibly be more accurate.
Now that we understand the basic idea, let's look at how the Expected Surprise Prediction works. The ESP is calculated by comparing the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate, with the percentage difference between the two giving us the Zacks ESP figure.
In fact, when we combined a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better and a positive Earnings ESP, stocks produced a positive surprise 70% of the time. Perhaps most importantly, using these parameters has helped produce 28.3% annual returns on average, according to our 10 year backtest.
Stocks with a #3 (Hold) ranking, which is most stocks covered at 60%, are expected to perform in-line with the broader market. But stocks that fall into the #2 (Buy) and #1 (Strong Buy) ranking, or the top 15% and top 5% of stocks, respectively, should outperform the market. Strong Buy stocks should outperform more than any other rank.
Should You Consider Texas Instruments?The last thing we will do today, now that we have a grasp on the ESP and how powerful of a tool it can be, is to quickly look at a qualifying stock. Texas Instruments (TXN - Free Report) holds a #3 (Hold) at the moment and its Most Accurate Estimate comes in at $1.96 a share seven days away from its upcoming earnings release on July 22, 2026.
TXN has an Earnings ESP figure of +2.66%, which, as explained above, is calculated by taking the percentage difference between the $1.96 Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.91. Texas Instruments is one of a large database of stocks with positive ESPs. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.
TXN is just one of a large group of Computer and Technology stocks with a positive ESP figure. Apple (AAPL - Free Report) is another qualifying stock you may want to consider.
Slated to report earnings on July 30, 2026, Apple holds a #3 (Hold) ranking on the Zacks Rank, and its Most Accurate Estimate is $1.89 a share 15 days from its next quarterly update.
Apple's Earnings ESP figure currently stands at +0.53% after taking the percentage difference between its Most Accurate Estimate and its Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.88.
TXN and AAPL's positive ESP figures tell us that both stocks have a good chance at beating analyst expectations in their next earnings report.
Find Stocks to Buy or Sell Before They're ReportedUse the Zacks Earnings ESP Filter to turn up stocks with the highest probability of positively, or negatively, surprising to buy or sell before they're reported for profitable earnings season trading. Check it out here >>
Item 1 of 2 A man takes images of the new iPhone 17 Pro smartphones as they are displayed at the Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun area during the start of sales in Beijing, China September 19, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
[1/2]A man takes images of the new iPhone 17 Pro smartphones as they are displayed at the Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun area during the start of sales in Beijing, China September 19, 2025.... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more
BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters) - China's cyberspace regulator said on Wednesday that Apple's on-device generative AI service, Apple Intelligence, has been registered for use on iPhones in China, paving the way for the long-anticipated rollout of the service in the country.
China requires companies to register large language models and generative AI services with regulators before making them available to the public.
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Apple Intelligence will incorporate capabilities from AI models developed by Baidu and Alibaba, a source familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The development could help bolster Apple's position in China, where consumers have been waiting for the rollout of Apple Intelligence.
Alibaba (9988.HK), opens new tab said in a statement to Reuters that its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence across Apple's iPhone (iOS), iPad (iPadOS), Mac (macOS) and Vision Pro (visionOS) operating systems in China.
Apple is also working with Baidu to develop Apple Intelligence features for Chinese iPhone users, a Baidu spokesperson said.
The regulator's statement did not give a launch date for Apple Intelligence in China.
Apple reported a 24.4% year-on-year increase in its China shipments in the second quarter.
Separately, ZTE's (000063.SZ), opens new tab Nubia-Doubao smartphone model was also registered with the cyberspace regulator.
Nubia is a smartphone brand owned by telecoms equipment maker ZTE, which works with ByteDance to produce the AI-focused Doubao smartphone.
Reporting by Ethan Wang, Che Pan and Liz Lee. Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Mark Potter
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Liz Lee covers a range of China-related stories from Beijing, including diplomacy, policy, economic data, and extreme weather events. She has reported on breaking news and enterprise stories since joining Reuters in Malaysia. She previously focused on corporate deals and news in Kuala Lumpur, from IPOs to labour issues. Liz is a fellow at the International Strategic Forum and is part of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. Her work also contributed to a story selected as a Pulitzer Prize finalist, which looked into scam centres in Southeast Asia.
A lawyer says Apple's case against OpenAI is really a fight to see what's behind the curtain By You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman looks past Apple CEO Tim Cook. Bloomberg/Getty Images Apple doesn't know what's happening behind OpenAI's closed doors, and its new lawsuit could change that.
Apple sued OpenAI in federal court on Friday, with a fiery complaint accusing the company of stealing trade secrets to build up its nascent hardware business. The suit pits an incumbent against a disruptor — OpenAI is working on devices that could threaten Apple's bottom line. Apple says OpenAI stole information in a "coordinated pattern of misconduct" and poached more than 400 employees from its ranks.
Patricia Lantzy, an attorney who leads Outside General Counsel's employment practice, told Business Insider that Apple likely brought this complaint in part because it had no other way to determine what information OpenAI might have taken. The complaint makes it clear there's a lot that Apple does not know about what OpenAI might have taken or what it might be doing with any potential trade secrets, she said.
"We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. "While we take these allegations seriously, we're not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit. We believe in fair competition and allowing people the freedom to work wherever they choose, and we're focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere."
Apple did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Lantzy laid out the case's most important questions for Apple and OpenAI to answer.
Apple wants more informationApple alleges that its former engineer, Chang Liu, used his old company laptop to access Apple systems during his new job at OpenAI, downloading confidential files containing technical specifications, manufacturing processes, and more. Apple is also accusing OpenAI of pumping potential recruits for confidential information about the iPhone giant's work.
Apple's suit calls these allegations the "tip of the iceberg," saying it "lacks visibility into what's been happening behind closed doors at OpenAI."
Lantzy said a lawsuit's discovery process can help Apple find out exactly what's happening. It's an alternative to something drastic and illegal like corporate espionage, she said.
Apple's point of view seems to be, "We need the court's help to hash out these facts and discover exactly what has gone on here," she said.
Apple's legal argument hinges on a 2016 lawThe thrust of the lawsuit hinges on the 2016 Defend Trade Secrets Act, which allows companies to sue for trade secret theft.
Apple will need to prove that any information in question was actually secret, that Apple took precautions to safeguard it, and that the defendants intentionally obtained it through improper means, Lantzy said.
Another important question, she said, is whether OpenAI actually used any stolen trade secrets in practice. That could have major ramifications in the case, where Apple has asked for monetary recovery and damages, or in lieu of those, a "reasonable royalty."
While it has hired hundreds of former Apple workers, OpenAI's hardware efforts are still early. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that OpenAI's first device could be a screen-free smart speaker.
In the complaint, Apple alleges that OpenAI has deployed stolen secrets in its hardware development.
"That's kind of hard to prove at this stage," Lantzy said.
The attorney said California law generally protects OpenAI's recruitment of Apple employees, though if the company instructed decamping Apple workers to bring secrets with them, that would be "problematic."
"We're only reading Apple's side of it," Lantzy said. "We haven't gotten OpenAI's answer yet. That will also be illuminating, no doubt."
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Stephen Council You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Stephen is a Senior Tech Reporter at Business Insider, covering OpenAI, Anthropic and the ecosystem around the leading artificial intelligence companies.Previously he covered technology at SFGATE, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Information and CNBC. He studied journalism and economics at Northwestern University.His work has earned an SF Press Club Investigative Reporting Award and, in 2025, SPJ NorCal’s Excellence in Journalism Award for Technology Reporting.Stephen lives in San Francisco. Contact him via email at [email protected], or on Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 415-757-8198. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
Apple OpenAI Sam Altman More Legal lawsuit Big Tech
Image Credits:Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto / Getty Images OpenAI pushed back Tuesday against allegations made by Apple in a trade secret lawsuit, suggesting the complaint lacks merit.
“While we take these allegations seriously, we’re not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit,” OpenAI said in a statement, first shared by Bloomberg reporter Ed Ludlow on X. “We believe in fair competition and allowing people the freedom to work wherever they choose, and we’re focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”
The statement comes several days after Apple filed a lawsuit against the AI lab, alleging that OpenAI employees, who previously worked at the iPhone maker, engaged in a coordinated effort to obtain confidential information and intellectual property. The 41-page complaint, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, contains a string of allegations against OpenAI leadership, including Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan. Before joining OpenAI, Tan was a veteran at Apple, where he worked for 24 years and held top positions, including vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch.
This is the first time OpenAI commented on the case itself. In its initial statement hours after Apple filed its lawsuit, it proclaimed a lack of interest in technology developed by other companies, telling TechCrunch: “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”
Apple claims in its lawsuit that its internal investigation uncovered evidence that OpenAI and its partners used the company’s confidential information as it develops its own hardware product.
Reports, along with OpenAI’s recent acquisition of Jony Ive’s startup io, suggest the company is working on a device that could directly compete with Apple’s business. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that OpenAI is working on a mobile, screen-free smart speaker.
TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for further comment and will update this article when the company responds.
Apple (AAPL - Free Report) has been one of the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com lately. So, you might want to look at some of the facts that could shape the stock's performance in the near term.
Over the past month, shares of this maker of iPhones, iPads and other products have returned +7.1%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +1.3% change. During this period, the Zacks Computer - Micro Computers industry, which Apple falls in, has gained 8.9%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?
While media releases or rumors about a substantial change in a company's business prospects usually make its stock 'trending' and lead to an immediate price change, there are always some fundamental facts that eventually dominate the buy-and-hold decision-making.
Revisions to Earnings EstimatesHere at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.
We essentially look at how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to reflect the impact of the latest business trends. And if earnings estimates go up for a company, the fair value for its stock goes up. A higher fair value than the current market price drives investors' interest in buying the stock, leading to its price moving higher. This is why empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
Apple is expected to post earnings of $1.88 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +19.8%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate remained unchanged.
For the current fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $8.74 points to a change of +17.2% from the prior year. Over the last 30 days, this estimate has remained unchanged.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $9.57 indicates a change of +9.5% from what Apple is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +0.2%.
With an impressive externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- is a more conclusive indicator of a stock's near-term price performance, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for Apple.
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Projected Revenue GrowthEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.
For Apple, the consensus sales estimate for the current quarter of $108.71 billion indicates a year-over-year change of +15.6%. For the current and next fiscal years, $478.19 billion and $517.77 billion estimates indicate +14.9% and +8.3% changes, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise HistoryApple reported revenues of $111.18 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +16.6%. EPS of $2.01 for the same period compares with $1.65 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $109.48 billion, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +1.55%. The EPS surprise was +4.69%.
The company beat consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.
ValuationWithout considering a stock's valuation, no investment decision can be efficient. In predicting a stock's future price performance, it's crucial to determine whether its current price correctly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects.
Comparing the current value of a company's valuation multiples, such as its price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), to its own historical values helps ascertain whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, whereas comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of how reasonable its stock price is.
The Zacks Value Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which pays close attention to both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics to grade stocks from A to F (an A is better than a B; a B is better than a C; and so on), is pretty helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
Apple is graded F on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
Bottom LineThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about Apple. However, its Zacks Rank #3 does suggest that it may perform in line with the broader market in the near term.
Apple AAPL stock fell around 1% on Tuesday after KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded the iPhone maker, citing slowing hardware demand, weaker growth expectations, and valuation concerns despite the stock's strong performance over the past year.
Shares declined about 1.7% to $311.91 on Tuesday after analyst Brandon Nispel cut his rating on the stock to Underweight from Sector Weight.
He also assigned a $250 price target, implying roughly 21% downside from Monday's closing price.
The downgrade comes as Wall Street remains broadly positive on Apple, with several analysts maintaining bullish ratings and higher price targets.
The stock recovered some of the losses and was trading down 0.46% at the time of writing.
In a research note, Nispel said KeyBanc's spending checks pointed to "another month of below-trend growth" for Apple in June, adding that growth was beginning to fade after receiving a boost in 2025.
The analyst highlighted sluggish iPhone sales, weaker demand for Macs and iPads, and the potential impact those trends could have on Apple's higher-margin services business, including iCloud and Apple Music.
Nispel also argued that the company's valuation leaves little room for disappointment.
He wrote that the combination of slowing hardware demand and softer services growth would make the stock appear "too expensive."
Apple currently trades at about 36 times expected fiscal 2026 earnings, above both its five-year historical average and the broader S&P 500.
According to Nispel's analysis, June indexed hardware spending fell 2% month over month, compared with a three-year average growth rate of 9%, suggesting US demand has normalized following last year's tariff-driven surge.
He also expects slower iPhone production, weaker upgrade activity in the United States, and reduced device subsidies to weigh on future growth.
In his view, consensus forecasts for iPhone, Mac, iPad, Wearables and Services through 2027 are too optimistic and could require downward revisions.
Despite the downgrade, Apple continues to enjoy broad support from analysts.
The stock has gained 1.4% over the past week, 6.4% over the past month and 51% over the past year.
Wall Street currently maintains a Moderate Buy consensus, with an average 12-month price target of $327.20.
Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring reiterated his Buy rating and maintained a $360 price target.
Woodring said Apple's pricing power remains a key advantage, arguing that demand for major products remains resilient even as prices increase.
He said, "demand for key devices such as the iPhone, Mac, and iPad is relatively insensitive to price changes, allowing Apple to raise prices without materially weakening unit demand, while also protecting margins as component costs rise."
He also expects higher iPhone pricing and new AI-focused products to support earnings growth over the coming years.
Price increases and future growth remain in focusApple announced in late June that it would increase prices for MacBooks and iPads as memory component costs continue to rise.
Woodring believes upcoming iPhone price increases, combined with Apple's product roadmap featuring new form factors and AI-enhanced user experiences, could lift both near-term and fiscal 2027 earnings per share.
Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani also maintained a Buy rating on Apple and set a $365 price target.
For the past two years, investors have measured the artificial intelligence race by one metric above all others: spending. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) are collectively on pace to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure this year, betting that bigger data centers and more powerful chips will translate into long-term dominance.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), by comparison, looked like the odd company out. It avoided the AI spending arms race, rolled out Apple Intelligence at a measured pace, and has yet to deliver the fully capable AI-powered Siri it promised. Yet the market is beginning to rethink that narrative.
Apple is the best-performing Magnificent Seven stock year to date, suggesting investors are starting to recognize that winning AI may depend less on building the biggest model than on controlling how consumers actually use it.
Apple Is Playing a Different AI Game Unlike the hyperscalers, Apple isn’t spending tens of billions of dollars building frontier AI models. Instead, it is positioning itself as the gateway through which consumers interact with AI every day.
At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the company introduced App Intents, the framework allowing Siri to perform actions inside apps instead of simply answering questions. Booking a reservation, buying products, scheduling appointments, or completing tasks could eventually happen through a simple voice command rather than manually opening an app.
Ironically, Apple may not need the best AI model if it owns the customer relationship. Rather than competing head-to-head with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or future models, Apple could become an AI traffic controller, routing requests to whichever model is fastest, cheapest, or most capable for a given task while keeping sensitive information processed locally on-device whenever possible.
That approach also aligns with Apple’s longstanding emphasis on privacy.
If agentic AI becomes the preferred way consumers interact with technology — asking Siri to complete purchases, manage schedules, and coordinate digital tasks automatically — it creates a compelling reason to upgrade hardware, not simply download another app.
That’s an important distinction because Apple’s business has always been strongest when software innovation drives hardware sales.
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Granted, Apple’s enhanced Siri remains unfinished. The vision has been outlined, but execution still lies ahead. Investors shouldn’t confuse the roadmap with a guaranteed outcome.
Apple Could Become The Toll Booth For Consumer AI Surprisingly, Apple’s greatest AI opportunity may have little to do with selling smartphones. If intelligent agents become the primary interface between consumers and digital services, Apple already owns the hardware ecosystem where those interactions occur across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision products.
That opens the door to new revenue streams through premium AI subscriptions, transaction fees when AI agents complete purchases, or partnerships with multiple AI providers. Instead of competing against every AI company, Apple could benefit from all of them.
It’s a strategy that resembles the App Store playbook. Apple didn’t invent most mobile apps, but it built the platform that connected developers with consumers.
Agentic AI could become the next version of that ecosystem.
Key Takeaway In short, Apple’s AI strategy has often been criticized because it hasn’t matched rivals dollar for dollar in AI infrastructure spending. Yet investors may have been looking at the wrong scoreboard.
If AI ultimately becomes something consumers use through personal assistants instead of standalone chatbots, Apple already controls the devices where those interactions are most likely to occur. Morgan Stanley’s estimate that 1.3 billion iPhones cannot support the next-generation Siri also hints at what could become the largest hardware refresh cycle in the company’s history.
That said, execution remains the biggest risk. Apple still must deliver the intelligent Siri it has promised. Until it does, the investment case rests on potential rather than proven results.
Ultimately, if Apple succeeds, skipping the AI capital spending race may prove to be one of the smartest investments it never made.
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Index Dow Jones +0,22 % na 52613,05 b., S&P 500 +0,38 % na 7544,24 b., Nasdaq Composite +0,73 % na 26061,63 b.
Americké akciové indexy na začátku obchodování mírně rostou, index S&P 500 přidává 0,38 %.
Akcie IBM padají o 23 % poté, co technologická společnost představila předběžné výsledky za 2Q. Tržby ve druhém kvartále vzrostly meziročně pouze o 1 % na 17,2 mld. USD, zatímco analytici očekávali 17,86 mld. USD. Z jednotlivých segmentů rostl pouze software, a to o 5 %. Tržby z infrastruktury naopak klesly o 7 % a poradenská divize stagnovala (při konstantních měnových kurzech +1 %).
Akcie softwarových a IT/profesionálních služeb obecně klesají poté, co předběžné tržby IBM za druhé čtvrtletí nedosáhly konsenzuálního odhadu.
Dneškem naplno odstartovala výsledková sezóna v USA za 2Q, když své hospodářské výsledky zveřejnily velké banky, včetně JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs a Wells Fargo.
Akcie Apple klesají o 1,1 % poté, co banka KeyBanc snížila doporučení pro akcie na underweight, přičemž očekává slabší poptávku po zařízeních a pomalejší růst výnosů ze služeb v USA.
Index S&P 500 +0,38 % na 7544,24 b. Nejsilnější sektory S&P Změna Nejslabší sektory S&P Změna Základní materiály +1,6 % Zdravotní péče -1,5 % Průmysl +1,1 % Nezbytná spotřeba -0,2 % Finanční sektor +0,8 % Zbytná spotřeba -0,1 % Nejsilnější akcie S&P Změna Nejslabší akcie S&P Změna Crowdstrike Holdings (CRWD) +7,9 % IBM (IBM) -23 % Lumentum Holdings (LITE) +7,6 % Biogen (BIIB) -7,6 % Sandisk Corp (SNDK) +6,6 % Workday (WDAY) -7,0 % Goldman Sachs Group (GS) +6,4 % ServiceNow (NOW) -6,3 % Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) +6,0 % Stryker Corp (SYK) -5,4 % Zdroj: Bloomberg
Walter Piecyk, LightShed co-founder and partner, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss news of Apple nearing $5T in market value, KeyBanc's downgrade of the stock, the headwinds facing the company, OpenAI lawsuit, and more.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) closed at $317.31 on July 13, an all-time high, shortly after it filed one of the most aggressive lawsuits in its recent history. That contrast is the story most investors are ignoring right now.
What the Lawsuit Actually Alleges On July 13, 2026, Apple sued OpenAI, two former Apple employees (Tang Tan and Chang Liu), and OpenAI affiliate io Products, alleging systematic theft of hardware trade secrets to accelerate development of OpenAI’s first consumer hardware product. Apple claims the scheme reached “every level” of the recruiting process, with Tang Tan, a former Apple VP, now serving as chief hardware officer at OpenAI. OpenAI responded that it has “no interest in other companies’ secrets.”
The legal exposure extends further. Apple is simultaneously fighting Epic Games over App Store commission structure, with the Supreme Court reviewing a contempt finding, and a Safari privacy class action filed on June 24, 2026, alleging the browser fails to prevent fingerprinting despite its marketing claims.
Why Investors Are Shrugging The market’s reaction has been muted. Apple stock is up 50.3% over the past year and 16.7% year to date, and the company now carries a market cap of $4.7 trillion at a trailing P/E of 38.
Options positioning confirms the complacency. The full-chain put/call ratio stands at 0.53, with November 2026 expirations as low as 0.12. Prediction markets tell the same story: of 11 active AAPL markets on Polymarket, zero address litigation, regulatory fines, or antitrust outcomes. Reddit engagement on the lawsuit hit 1,817 upvotes on a single r/stocks thread, but sentiment scores stayed in the 39 to 53 range, neutral to mildly bearish rather than alarmed.
The Risk Investors Are Underpricing Apple’s own Q2 2026 earnings call flagged “legal and regulatory proceedings” as a material risk factor, though management declined to discuss specifics. That silence matters, given the fundamentals at stake. Services revenue hit an all-time record of $31 billion, up 16% year on year, at a 76.7% gross margin, and that margin structure depends on the App Store economics Epic is actively challenging. Insiders sold about $70 million in shares over the past three months, a discordant note against Citi’s $365 price target.
The OpenAI case introduces a novel exposure: hardware IP leakage to a competitor that is building its first consumer device. If discovery produces evidence of coordinated recruitment, damages calculations could scale with the market opportunity that Apple accuses OpenAI of accelerating. For a stock priced at 10.3 times sales, this is a tail risk investors are not currently pricing in.
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Bloomberg/Getty Images A new job is your chance to put what you know to work. Just be sure not to share what belongs to your current or former employer.
Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI serves as a fresh reminder of the risks involved in drawing on your expertise without crossing into protected territory.
Filed on Friday, the lawsuit alleges that OpenAI sought confidential details from Apple engineers during job interviews and that one former employee continued accessing sensitive material after joining OpenAI.
Two former Apple employees were named as individual defendants alongside OpenAI, which previously told Business Insider it has no interest in other companies' trade secrets. The named employees and representatives for Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
While the allegations have yet to be tested in court, the case raises broader questions about how workers can change jobs without sharing a former employer's trade secrets. Legal experts say sharing this information can expose both the worker and the new company to lawsuits, substantial legal bills, and reputational damage.
"Whether you intend to or not, it can open up a huge can of worms," said Joseph H. Harris, a partner at employment law firm FordHarrison.
Such disputes are not unusual, and employers may deliberately recruit workers to gain access to a competitor's confidential knowledge, said Betsy Bulat, an equity partner with the employment law firm Martenson, Hasbrouck, Simon, and Bulat LLP.
"There are some unscrupulous employers that probably do hire people just for the sole purpose of getting a competitor's information," Bulat said, speaking generally.
She added that the stakes can be especially high for AI companies because the field is new and the pool of workers with deep expertise remains limited.
"I think we're going to continue seeing these kinds of lawsuits going forward," Bulat said.
How trade secrets walk out the doorIt may seem obvious not to share trade secrets, yet Harris said employees sometimes take sensitive documents with them when leaving a company, reasoning that because they helped create the material, it's fair game and may come in handy later. They may have no malicious intent, he said, but these documents don't belong to them.
"Even though you wrote it and you worked on it, it's still the former employer's information," Harris said.
In other instances, workers may simply be trying to get up to speed and fail to recognize that moving confidential material outside company systems is not allowed.
Jennifer Schielke, CEO of staffing firm Summit Group Solutions, recalled a newly hired account manager who emailed a confidential client template to a personal account a few years ago. The employee, who didn't yet have access to their work email from home, wanted to study the template outside the office and openly mentioned doing so during onboarding.
The person was trying to learn, "but they didn't really think about the fact that they crossed the line," Schielke said.
The risk can arise before someone is hired. Michael Doud, a recruiter for The Barton Partnership, an executive search firm, said job candidates sometimes disclose confidential details about a current or past employer during interviews because they're bragging or desperate to land an offer.
The move can backfire, he said, because an interviewer may see the disclosure as an indicator of the candidate's judgment and trustworthiness.
"That's not the right first impression," said Doud. "It absolutely could hurt your candidacy."
The cost of sharing too muchThe potential consequences of sharing trade secrets during a job interview or after getting hired can be severe.
A former employer can sue both the worker and the new company for allegedly misappropriating trade secrets. Claims may arise from nondisclosure provisions in an employment agreement or company policies that the worker signed upon joining the business.
Harris said a new employer could fire the worker to distance itself from the alleged misconduct, potentially leaving the worker on the hook for substantial legal fees. Even if a case doesn't go to trial, a public lawsuit accusing a worker of theft or dishonesty can create "severe reputational risk," Harris said.
These kinds of disputes often end in settlements because they are expensive to litigate and difficult to prove. Evidence that confidential material was taken does, however, sometimes surface.
Employment lawyer Pam Howland said her firm once handled a case involving several employees who left a business with few competitors in the region. Soon afterward, a new company emerged that looked strikingly similar and began taking market share from their former employer.
The former employer sued the workers and their new company, and years into the litigation, a document surfaced that Howland said showed the workers had used their former employer's proprietary information after all. The case was then settled.
'Don't take the bait'The AI talent wars are prompting employers to scrutinize candidates' past work more closely as they try to distinguish genuine expertise from "lip service," said Tara Flickinger, a partner at executive search firm ON Partners.
That deeper questioning can lead applicants to reveal too much as they try to prove their credentials.
Her rule of thumb: "If you wouldn't say it in front of your former employer's general counsel, then don't say it in an interview."
Knowing where that line falls starts with reviewing any employment agreements and trade-secret policies before changing jobs, Bulat said. Workers can use the expertise and industry knowledge they developed in a previous role, she said, but not a former employer's documents, data, or other confidential information.
"Don't share anything," Bulat said of a current or former employer's confidential information. "If someone's trying to bait you into doing it, don't take the bait."
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Sarah E. Needleman You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Sarah E. Needleman covers leadership and the workplace for Business Insider.Previously, she was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal for more than two decades, covering technology companies, entrepreneurship, and recruiting.In 2022, Sarah received an honorable mention with WSJ colleagues for their coverage of workplace misconduct at Activision Blizzard from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.Sarah graduated from Rutgers University in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. She lives with her husband, daughter, and fur child (an Australian labradoodle) in northern New Jersey.Have feedback or a tip?Contact Sarah on Signal at saraheneedleman.13, or email her at [email protected] of Sarah’s scoops, exclusives, and most-read articles include: 'Entitled,' 'complacent,' and 'sloppy': Inside the workplace tension at the world's largest HR organizationShe won a religious exemption from using AI at work. The Pope's remarks could fuel similar appeals.The CEO behind 'Grand Theft Auto' doesn't drink, smoke, or play video gamesPTO, parental leave, pensions: Even the most prized benefits are on the chopping blockGoodbye, middle managers. Hello, 'player-coaches' and 'org leads.'She used to manage 3 employees. Now she oversees 24. Welcome to the age of the megamanager.America's new sink-or-swim era is hereInside the AI divide roiling video game giant Electronic ArtsMeet your new office bestie: ChatGPT
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images For years, Silicon Valley has had a comfortable way of digesting disruption. OpenAI is refusing to play by these unspoken rules.
That's my takeaway after reviewing Apple's angry lawsuit against the AI startup, and coverage of the blockbuster complaint.
The usual Silicon Valley playbook goes something like this: engineers work on secret projects inside Big Tech, gain expertise, then sometimes leave to start companies of their own.
Most of these startups stay relatively small. They solve narrow technical problems that Apple, Google, Nvidia, or Amazon haven't prioritized. Many fail. The successful ones usually become suppliers, software partners, or acquisition targets. Either way, they end up strengthening the existing dominant players.
Less risk, more controlThat arrangement suits Big Tech just fine. Let someone else take the technical and financial risk, then use the new technology once it's proven, or buy the startup to control the products and the people behind it.
Sometimes it's an acqui-hire after a startup fails. Sometimes it's a multibillion-dollar deal after it succeeds. Either way, the founders often end up back at Big Tech companies, the cycle begins again.
For example, I have a neighbor in Silicon Valley who developed a specialized semiconductor component at a startup. Apple acquired that business, and he spent about four years in Cupertino doing similar work that helped make AirPods successful.
Kiva Systems followed a similar pattern. Amazon used technology from this robotics startup to make its warehouse more efficient. Then it acquired the business, and made it the foundation of Amazon's massive robotics operation.
Google took a similar approach with Noam Shazeer. He left to build the startup Character.ai before Google engineered a deal that brought the AI expert back to the search giant.
OpenAI's behavior blows this comfy, established playbook out the water in various ways. This is partly why the company upsets Big Tech companies — even those it previously partnered closely with, such as Microsoft and Apple, as Peter Kafka explained on Monday.
In other words, the Silicon Valley establishment loves to talk about disruption, but when they get truly disrupted themselves, the knives come out.
Sandberg's refusal
Sheryl Sandberg Bloomberg/Getty Images The last major example of this I can recall is Facebook, which, like OpenAI, was well-funded and refused to play by the usual rules of the industry. These rules mainly revolve around talent. Who gets to hire, retain, and essentially control, great technical minds — and the ideas held in these prodigious brains.
Back in the 2000s, Apple, Google, Intel, Pixar, Adobe, and Intuit entered into a secret pact that prevented the companies from directly soliciting each other's employees, according to a Justice Department lawsuit.
Facebook refused to take part, and instead went on a hiring spree, luring away hundreds of Googlers. The effort was partly overseen by Sheryl Sandberg, a former top advertising executive from Google. (You may have heard of her!).
Google — just like Apple today — was furious that it was losing talent to a scrappy startup that wasn't playing by Silicon Valley's rules.
"Fix this problem. Propose that you will substantially lower the rate at which you hire people from us," Google executive Jonathan Rosenberg told Sandberg in an email in August 2008. "Then make sure that happens."
But Sandberg refused, and Facebook went on to build the only digital advertising business that has really challenged Google (so far), becoming a $1.7 trillion tech juggernaut in the process.
OpenAI won't stay in its lane
Jony Ive Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Will OpenAI follow in Facebook's successful steps, or will it crash and burn? That's unclear right now. But the startup is certainly refusing to stay in its lane when it comes to Silicon Valley talent.
The scale of the departures from Apple to OpenAI are astounding. I hadn't realized, until Apple told the world in its lawsuit on Friday that more than 400 of its employees work there now. That's not a small hardware startup.
Some of the Apple talent OpenAI has brought on is unusually senior. Jony Ive is the famous iPhone designer, and Tang Tan spent a quarter of a century at Apple overseeing the design of the iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPod. These are not mid-level technical engineers who dabble in niche projects. They are either visionaries and/or top-level execs who ran big teams at Apple and know how to bring huge projects to life.
"Apple hasn't really had competition for its best hardware and operations people until now, " tech blogger Ben Thompson wrote on Monday. "From what I understand, there has never before been a mass exodus from Apple for a competitor like has happened in this case, and I don't think Apple likes that very much!"
A threat to AppleRelated to this: OpenAI isn't trying to fix some small technical thing that Apple is too busy to focus on. This startup wants to either directly challenge the iPhone, or completely replace this device as the go-to gadget of the AI era.
OpenAI hinted at this ambition in its response to Apple's complaints, saying it has "no interest in other companies' trade secrets."
Instead of helping Apple from the sidelines, OpenAI is going for the jugular. That's a huge threat.
Thompson wrote on Monday that Apple finally has to "actually wrestle with the possibility that AI is such a paradigm shift that it actually might threaten the iPhone."
And OpenAI is ridiculously well funded, so it's beyond being easily acquired to bring talent back to Apple. The startup raised more than $100 billion earlier this year. Even if the valuation collapses 70% from here, it would cost about $100 billion to acquire. Even for Apple, that would be a pricey acqui-hire!
To me, all this explains the intensity (or desperation?) of Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI.
Normally, if a small startup is getting too successful, or too big for its britches, in Silicon Valley, it can be easily squashed, or just acquired. This time, OpenAI is too big, too well-funded, and too ambitious to swat away or subsume easily.
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Alistair Barr is the author of Business Insider's Tech Memo newsletter. Sign up here. Before that, he was BI's Global Tech Editor and the Big Tech team leader at Bloomberg, following a reporting career at The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, and MarketWatch. Alistair won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2007 for coverage of short selling and was a finalist in 2013 for scoops on the Facebook IPO. More recently, he won a 2024 San Francisco Press Club award for commentary. Got a tip? Reach out using the secure messaging app Signal (+1 415-341-4927) or via email on [email protected] oversees all things Big Tech, along with startups and venture capital. He writes analysis and columns about topics including generative AI, large language models, cloud computing, semiconductors, online search, e-commerce, EVs, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.Popular StoriesArtificial Intelligence:It's getting harder to make big leaps at the frontier of AIOpenAI's AI-adjusted earnings numbers have echoes of Groupon and WeWorkDeath by LLM: Stack Overflow's decline, and its plan to survive, shows the future of free online data in an AI worldCloud computing:Amazon dominated the first cloud era. The AI boom has kicked off Cloud 2.0, and the company doesn't have a head start this time.In cloud, there's AI (which is hot) and everything else (which is not)Chips:Why Intel is still so important: Real countries have fabsApple's made-in-the-USA chips signal a turnaround for the US's big semiconductor betEVs and Tesla:Tesla's AI supercomputer has a Silicon Valley town rushing to meet surging electricity demandTesla's Cybertruck is outselling almost every other EV in the USOnline Search:Google is losing its status as a verbA simple way to fix search: Bright pink ads
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On CNBC’s Squawk on the Street on Monday morning, Jim Cramer and David Faber discussed Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) and its newly filed lawsuit against OpenAI, framing the case as a serious escalation with real IPO consequences. Cramer’s take was that this lawsuit carries weight because Apple rarely files them.
“There are a lot of people who feel that the Apple lawsuit is heavyweight, because it’s not the kind of thing that Apple typically does. They have very good general counsels. They are not prone to suing for the sake of suing,” Cramer said, referencing the parallel Elon Musk and Sam Altman feud playing out on X.
Apple Says OpenAI Stole Trade Secrets and iPhone Technology According to filings and coverage circulating July 12 and 13, Apple sued OpenAI, its subsidiary IO Products, former Apple VP Tang Tan (now OpenAI’s Chief Hardware Officer), and former Apple employee Chang Liu, accusing them of a coordinated effort to misappropriate confidential hardware information and unannounced product details.
The complaint alleges former Apple employees copied confidential materials and brought hardware prototypes into OpenAI interviews. The suit specifically accuses OpenAI of stealing trade secrets and iPhone technology.
OpenAI’s response has been dismissive. Sam Altman said he is “not afraid of Apple,” expressed “tremendous respect” for the company, and called Apple an “S-tier company,” while OpenAI stated it is “reviewing the filing” and has “no interest in competitors’ trade secrets.”
Why Apple’s Lawsuit Could Be the Real Deal Faber noted the case lands as OpenAI is moving toward a potential public offering. “Doesn’t help the S-1, right?” he added, before noting the severity of the issue: “I think it’s serious. I come down on the serious side… don’t you for a minute fall for this thing [being] just classic Silicon Valley going at it… when I speak to the people on this who are on the Apple side, it’s just a highly rare [move].”
Cramer acknowledged the counter-view. “There are serious people who are taking the side of OpenAI on this case… saying this is Apple just trying to stall. But there are a lot of people who just say, look, Tim Cook would not do this unless he really and truly believed that they’re just stealing,” he said. Apple reported that over 400 employees have moved to working for OpenAI over the years, which makes the trade-secret theory both plausible and legally messy.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Apple didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s Feud Is Just the Sideshow Running alongside the litigation, Elon Musk accused Sam Altman of scamming, calling him a scammer on X, and Altman fired back at Musk’s space data center plans.
As entertaining as the exchange is, the Apple complaint carries real balance-sheet consequences for OpenAI’s IPO paperwork.
Apple Investors Are Looking Straight Past the OpenAI Fight Apple has a market cap of roughly $4.63 trillion, with the stock at $316.98, up 16.2% year to date and 49.04% over the past year. Citi just raised its price target to $365 from $315, citing margin expansion and share gains. On fundamentals, Apple’s most recent quarter delivered revenue of $111.18 billion, up 16.6% year over year, with diluted EPS of $2.01 and record Services revenue of $30.98 billion.
What to Watch Next Apple’s July 30 earnings report and September iPhone launch remain the biggest near-term events for shareholders, but the OpenAI lawsuit introduces a separate risk that could grow over time. Early court filings and the discovery process may reveal whether former Apple employees actually brought confidential hardware information to OpenAI or whether the case is primarily an attempt to slow a new competitor.
The lawsuit could also complicate OpenAI’s path toward an IPO. If Apple’s allegations gain credibility, OpenAI may need to disclose the case as a material legal risk in its S-1 filing. The public feud may generate attention, but the lawsuit’s potential effect on OpenAI’s offering could carry much greater financial consequences.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Apple didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
According to a report, the company plans to skip higher-performance versions of some of its processors along the way.
Omar Gallaga has covered technology, digital culture and other topics for outlets including CNET, NPR, WIRED, Texas Monthly, MSNBC, Consumer Reports, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic and the Austin American-Statesman, where he was a longtime tech reporter, editor and podcaster. He lives in the Texas Hill Country.
3 min read
Apple is changing the way it will handle the release of its next flagship M processors going forward, according to a report from Bloomberg's Power On newsletter.
Power On author Mark Gurman wrote that in a race to get to its M7 generation of processors, which use neural processing to improve AI performance, Apple will skip some iterations of processors along the way. For instance, whereas Apple may have released Pro, Max and Ultra versions of some M-series processors, it may not do so for the next one in line, M6, due out this fall.
Apple's M5 processors for desktop and laptop Mac computers, as well as some iPads, started becoming available in those products in the fall of 2025.
Bloomberg previously reported anticipated changes in the M6 roadmap in June, but is now reporting how Apple's plans for its processor lineup, up to the M8, are being influenced by artificial intelligence, including competition from companies like Nvidia. Gurman points to the development of advanced AI performance for the M7 Ultra processor as one reason for accelerating the chip-release roadmap. An even more advanced M8 processor codenamed Soko is also in the works, according to the report.
A representative for Apple didn't respond to a request for comment.
Apple's long game on AIApple has not been as overtly aggressive with its AI efforts as other tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Meta and OpenAI. But as Gurman suggests in his report, it has been quietly laying the groundwork for its long-term AI goals using technology it developed, even on failed projects such as the canceled Apple Car.
The company has delayed versions of its Siri assistant to refine its AI capabilities while continuing to develop processors that can handle the high demands of on-device AI rather than offloading processing to data centers, as many AI services do.
This strategy has served Apple well in the past: Wait for others to introduce new technology, learn from their mistakes, and then release its own products that are more refined. It's how Apple dominated headphones with its AirPods and what it did in wearables with the Apple Watch.
But with AI, Apple is battling competitors -- including partners like Google -- on several fronts. And that is requiring the company to shift its strategy in several ways. With its processors, Apple is pushing for improvements in memory bandwidth and Neural Engine improvements, said Mahdi Eslamimehr. executive vice president at Quandary Peak Research.
"Skipping the M6 Pro, Max and Ultra to pull the M7 generation forward is the clearest signal yet that AI has displaced CPU and graphics as the organizing principle of Apple's chip roadmap," Eslamimehr told CNET.
That move, he said, is bolstered by the company's hardware chief, John Ternus, taking over as CEO in the fall. "That silicon-first bet now has backing at the very top of the company," Eslamimehr said.
Apple, he said, won't be competing with Nvidia on the data center side of the AI business where it dominates with its processors, but will instead focus on making devices that excel as private, on-device AI computing powerhouses that eventually "would push local performance toward workstation class."
The payoff for Apple power users, he said, will be more powerful hardware-native AI, but it might not be until late 2027 before they get their hands on top-tier Apple M7 hardware.
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OMAR GALLAGA
Omar Gallaga has covered technology, digital culture and other topics for outlets including CNET, NPR, WIRED, Texas Monthly, MSNBC, Consumer Reports, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic and the Austin American-Statesman, where he was a longtime tech reporter, editor and podcaster. He lives in the Texas Hill Country. See full bio
Apple acquired certain assets of SigScalr and hired certain SigScalr employees, according to a list of acquisitions maintained by the European Commission.
The list said that “SigScalr develops a data log management and observability tool” and that Apple notified the commission of the acquisition on March 12.
The commission posted the details on its website Monday (July 13), according to 9to5Mac, which flagged the news of the acquisition in a Monday report.
SigScalr offers the open-source observability platform SigLens, which helps developers collect, search and analyze logs, metrics and traces generated by apps and infrastructure, according to the report.
The company’s website is now offline, and the platform’s GitHub repository was made read-only, according to the report.
In an archival notice posted in the repository, SigScalr said: “As we focus on something new, the repository will remain available in read-only mode for anyone who finds it useful. If you’d like to fork it, build on it, or take it in a new direction, we wholeheartedly encourage that. We are also changing the license to a more permissive Apache 2.0 license.”
MacRumors said in a Monday report on the acquisition that SigLens “was known for being a cost-effective and fast solution compared to many competing platforms.”
Apple Insider reported Monday that Apple’s acquisition of SigScalr will give it “a tool to monitor and debug the processes of large numbers of interrelated applications.”
SigLens Founder and CEO Kunal Nawale said in his LinkedIn profile: “By using our self-hosted or our SaaS, companies save 90% on their observability bills. We provide lightning-fast query response times on any volume of data thereby reducing your debugging time during production issues.”
SigScalr announced in a February 2024 press release that it emerged from stealth and closed a $1.76 million pre-seed round that was led by Scribble Ventures with co-investments from WestWave Capital and Forward Slash Capital.
PYMNTS reported in November that Palo Alto Networks announced plans to acquire observability platform Chronosphere for $3.35 billion.
Like other observability platforms, Chronosphere collects detailed data from applications and infrastructure to help engineers understand why problems occur and where they originate, according to the report.
Palo Alto Networks’ acquisition of the company closed in January, according to a Jan. 29 press release.
Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI announced Friday (July 10) includes allegations that highlight the importance of protecting corporate data when employees leave, TechCrunch reported Monday (July 13).
The lawsuit includes allegations that a former employee who went to work for OpenAI exploited an authentication bug to access the company’s network after leaving Apple. It does not describe the nature of the bug, according to the report.
The company said that it fixed the bug upon learning about it and that only the one former employee exploited the bug when it was active, per the report.
Apple alleged that the former employee failed to return an Apple-issued laptop when leaving the company, misused the access of an acquaintance who was an Apple employee at the time but later went to work for OpenAI, discovered the authentication bug after leaving Apple, and failed to report that bug as required by his employment agreement, according to the report.
TechCrunch reported Monday that the allegations show why companies often immediately cut off access by departing employees, as well as the risks companies face if they fail to do so completely.
It was reported Friday that Apple sued OpenAI and two former Apple employees now working at OpenAI, including the one later featured in the TechCrunch report, alleging that they stole trade secrets from Apple to support OpenAI’s development of devices.
The suit alleged that one employee emailed himself information about Apple’s suppliers and asked Apple employees to bring parts to OpenAI during job interviews; that the other employee downloaded confidential files from Apple’s network and coached an Apple employee on how to copy confidential files; and that “at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets and confidential information.”
An OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC: “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”
PYMNTS reported Monday that Apple’s lawsuit echoes the company’s legal battles in the 2010s against various companies making Android phones, including one legal fight that lasted eight years before the two sides reached a settlement.
