Experts grapple with Apple’s future in our AI-powered world
The fact that Apple is the world's most valuable company is not something investors can take for granted right now. In the year As of Monday morning, January 29, the house Steve Jobs built has dipped below $3-trillion and is currently chasing Microsoft for the top spot.
The two companies are ping-ponging by mid-2023, with Microsoft narrowly surpassing Apple as the world's most valuable company for the first time that year.
While the second place is still very good – today the closest competitors are Saudi Aramco and Alphabet (Google), both of which are close to $ 1 trillion – many analysts believe that Apple is not well positioned to take on AI-focused companies at the top of the list.
The competition
Microsoft and Nvidia are both expected to outperform the S&P 500 average through 2024. Shares of the Redmond company are currently up 7%, while Nvidia is up more than 10% this year versus the S&P 500's +2.5% performance.
Both companies set records in 2023. Nvidia was the S&P 500's top performer overall. Meanwhile, Apple stock remained flat for the first month of 2024.
Experts predict a banner first quarter for Nvidia and Microsoft, with many expecting the good fortune to extend into 2024. This analysis is based on the belief that overall, consumer and corporate demand for generative artificial intelligence (AI) products and services will continue. to rise.
In Apple's case, however, both investors and analysts are metaphorically stuck until the company announces its plans for the rest of the year.
Apple's artificial intelligence ambitions
Microsoft's AI-powered ascension can be attributed to its current investment with generative AI industry leader OpenAI.
Nivea's record growth has also been driven by generative AI. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) are the hardware of choice for most generative AI labs.
On the other hand, Apple It owes about half of its profits to iPhone sales in 2023. But that growth could be limited by 2024 due to increasing competition from China's Huawei and growing global consumer demand for “voice assistant” technologies like Siri.
If this is the case and Apple falls behind its AI-first competitors (Fidel, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla) over the next few quarters, the Cupertino company may need another iPhone season to find its way back. on top of.
Can lightning strike twice?
It should not be forgotten that Apple has the right iPhone with its installed user base.
Additionally, rumors abound that the company is secretly working on its own generative AI systems, with plans to turn Siri into something like ChatGPT.
According to a recent report from 9to5Mac, Apple itself is testing ChatGPT, along with various other artificial intelligence systems, in the latest beta of iOS 17.4. As many pundits were quick to point out, this could indicate that Apple is comparing its own proprietary system (called “AJAX”) to other AI models.
If Apple can bridge the gap between Siri's current capabilities and what GPT-4 can do, Apple's next “iPhone moment” could be an actual iPhone moment.
Generative AI has been a rising tide for organizations involved in its development, but so far, it hasn't found the killer app or hardware for consumer-grade experiences.
For more than 1 billion iPhone users around the world, the “one AI-interface to rule them all” may already be in their pockets.
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