Connect with us

AI Research

Did Apple miss the AI boat?

Published

on


Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world, with a market cap hovering around $3.3 trillion and a jaw-dropping $100 billion in annual free cash flow. It makes the devices we carry every day… and commands a loyal customer base.

So how is it that Apple—this powerhouse of design, marketing, and engineering—managed to miss the biggest tech shift in a generation?

We’re talking, of course, about artificial intelligence.

Apple’s underwhelming AI reveal

At its WWDC 2024 developer conference in June, Apple finally unveiled its long-awaited AI initiative: Apple Intelligence. And let’s just say it didn’t blow anyone away.

There were no working demos of a next-gen Siri. No ChatGPT-style capabilities built into apps. No dev tools for building with Apple AI.

All the feature included was a vague promise of on-device intelligence sometime this fall… and a few mocked-up screenshots of how AI might summarize your notifications or rewrite your emails.

Compare that to Microsoft’s Copilot—already embedded across Office, Windows, and Azure—or Google’s Gemini, which powers search, Gmail, YouTube, and more.

Apple’s entry into AI feels like a brochure, not a breakthrough.

Too late to buy in?

Another avenue of growth for Apple could’ve been mergers and acquisitions (M&A). But here, too, it’s lagged behind the curve.

Apple’s largest acquisition under CEO Tim Cook was the $3 billion purchase of music-streaming company Beats in 2014.

Meanwhile, Apple’s rivals have been in full AI shopping mode:

  • Google acquired DeepMind in 2014 for around $500 million—now a global AI leader.
  • Microsoft has reportedly invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, including exclusive access to its models.
  • Meta and Amazon have spent billions on AI startups, cloud infrastructure, and top-tier talent.

The best AI companies have already been scooped up… and their valuations have gone through the roof. Apple’s M&A inexperience may now be a real liability.

Can Apple build its own AI stack?

Sure, Apple can afford it. With $100 billion in free cash flow, it could fund an army of AI engineers, data centers, and chip designers.

But here’s the catch: Apple’s internal culture isn’t built for this.

The company is famously secretive—teams work in silos, information is tightly controlled, and speed isn’t exactly a core strength. That makes it much harder to:

  • Recruit top-tier AI talent (who often want open collaboration and research visibility).
  • Integrate complex new systems quickly (AI doesn’t run well when product teams don’t talk to each other).

In other words, Apple has the money, but not the muscle memory to compete at AI’s current pace.

Apple’s safety net (for now)

That said, don’t count Apple out. It still has one of the most powerful moats in tech, thanks to its hardware ecosystem that locks in users.

Its services segment—App Store, iCloud, Apple Music—grew 13% year over year last quarter. And even with AI shortcomings, iPhone sales rose 13%, thanks to price hikes and brand loyalty. (Most Apple users aren’t jumping to Android anytime soon.)

(It’s also worth noting that Tim Cook is one of the handful of CEOs in President Donald Trump’s elite inner circle—which should be good for the stock.) 

But here’s the risk: loyalty isn’t a forever guarantee—especially if Siri continues falling behind and other platforms become dramatically more useful.

What should investors watch?

If you’re an Apple shareholder—or thinking about becoming one—here are three key things to watch over the next 6–12 months:

  1. Siri upgrades: Can Apple turn its biggest weakness into a real AI assistant?
  2. Hiring spree: Will Apple poach elite AI talent (and pay top dollar for it)?
  3. Acquisitions: Is management willing to go outside its comfort zone and spend big to catch up?

If Apple fails to make meaningful progress in any of these areas, its premium valuation may start to crack… especially if the broader AI boom keeps surging ahead.

Bottom line

Apple’s not doomed—not even close. But for the first time in a while, it’s behind in the tech landscape. And that could be dangerous.

Yes, Apple has time. But it can’t keep dragging its feet. Because Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia aren’t waiting around.

And investors shouldn’t either.

For more in-depth insight into what’s driving the market—and how to position your portfolio—join Wall Street Unplugged Premium.





Source link

AI Research

How artificial intelligence is transforming hospitals

Published

on


Story highlights

AI is changing healthcare. From faster X-ray reports to early warnings for sepsis, new tools are helping doctors diagnose quicker and more accurately. What the future holds for ethical and safe use of AI in hospitals is worth watching. Know more below.



Source link

Continue Reading

AI Research

AI is becoming the new travel agent for younger generations, survey finds

Published

on


Is travel planning the next space AI is taking over?

A new survey shows that younger Americans are relying on AI and ChatGPT more and more to construct their vacation itineraries.

The survey of 2,000 Americans (split evenly by generation) by Talker Research found that only 29% of millennials have never used AI for this reason, with just 33% of Gen Z saying the same.

This is a stark contrast to older generations that still rely on old-school, traditional methods to sort their travel plans. Seven in ten baby boomers also say they have never used AI for their travel plans.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Travel cutbacks: Americans planning shorter, more frequent trips this summer

So exactly how are people utilizing AI in this way? The interesting results emerged in Talker Research’s new travel trend report.

The top application for AI in travel planning was found to be asking it to compare flight prices for wherever they’re headed, with 29% of all those polled saying they’ve done this.

A similar amount says AI comes in even before that: Twenty-nine percent of respondents have even asked it where they should go for their trip.

Another one in five even let AI complete a detailed plan for their whole trip, complete with sights to see, local things to do and museums to tick off.

While word of mouth and recommendations from loved ones have always been the most common way to learn about fun places to travel, the survey revealed that there’s a new contender.

YouTube (34%) was crowned as the top resource people use for travel inspo, officially topping recommendations from family (30%) and friends (28%).

The generations were split on this, as unsurprisingly, younger generations were a lot more reliant on social media than older generations.

FROM THE ARCHIVES | Affordable travel destinations that can save you thousands of dollars

While YouTube was the most popular when accounting for every survey-taker, Gen Z was overwhelmingly using TikTok for travel inspiration (52%).

In comparison, just 27% of millennials and only 2% of boomers said they use TikTok for this purpose.

While AI is still fairly new, it’s easy to see this trend growing as the technology becomes more sophisticated.

Survey methodology:

This random double-opt-in survey of 2,000 Americans (500 Gen Z, 500 millennials, 500 Gen X, 500 baby boomers) was conducted between May 5 and May 8, 2025 by market research company Talker Research, whose team members are members of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).





Source link

Continue Reading

AI Research

If I Could Only Buy 1 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chip Stock Over The Next 10 Years, This Would Be It (Hint: It’s Not Nvidia)

Published

on


While Nvidia continues to capture headlines, a critical enabler of the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom may be better positioned for long-term gains.

When investors debate the future of the artificial intelligence (AI) trade, the conversation generally finds its way back to the usual suspects: Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and cloud hyperscalers like Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.

Each of these companies is racing to design GPUs or develop custom accelerators in-house. But behind this hardware, there’s a company that benefits no matter which chip brand comes out ahead: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM -3.05%).

Let’s unpack why Taiwan Semi is my top AI chip stock over the next 10 years, and assess whether now is an opportune time to scoop up some shares.

Agnostic to the winner, leveraged to the trend

As the world’s leading semiconductor foundry, TSMC manufactures chips for nearly every major AI developer — from Nvidia and AMD to Amazon’s custom silicon initiatives, dubbed Trainium and Inferentia.

Unlike many of its peers in the chip space that rely on new product cycles to spur demand, Taiwan Semi’s business model is fundamentally agnostic. Whether demand is allocated toward GPUs, accelerators, or specialized cloud silicon, all roads lead back to TSMC’s fabrication capabilities.

With nearly 70% market share in the global foundry space, Taiwan Semi’s dominance is hard to ignore. Such a commanding lead over the competition provides the company with unmatched structural demand visibility — a trend that appears to be accelerating as AI infrastructure spend remains on the rise.

Image source: Getty Images.

Scaling with more sophisticated AI applications

At the moment, AI development is still concentrated on training and refining large language models (LLMs) and embedding them into downstream software applications.

The next wave of AI will expand into far more diverse and demanding use cases — autonomous systems, robotics, and quantum computing remain in their infancy. At scale, these workloads will place greater demands on silicon than today’s chips can support.

Meeting these demands doesn’t simply require additional investments in chips. Rather, it requires chips engineered for new levels of efficiency, performance, and power management. This is where TSMC’s competitive advantages begin to compound.

With each successive generation of process technology, the company has a unique opportunity to widen the performance gap between itself and rivals like Samsung or Intel.

Since Taiwan Semi already has such a large footprint in the foundry landscape, next-generation design complexities give the company a chance to further lock in deeper, stickier customer relationships.

TSMC’s valuation and the case for expansion

Taiwan Semi may trade at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24, but dismissing the stock as “expensive” overlooks the company’s extraordinary positioning in the AI realm. To me, the company’s valuation reflects a robust growth outlook, improving earnings prospects, and a declining risk premium.

TSM PE Ratio (Forward) Chart

TSM PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

Unlike many of its semiconductor peers, which are vulnerable to cyclicality headwinds, TSMC has become an indispensable utility for many of the world’s largest AI developers, evolving into one of the backbones of the ongoing infrastructure boom.

The scale of investment behind current AI infrastructure is jaw-dropping. Hyperscalers are investing staggering sums to expand and modernize data centers, and at the heart of each new buildout is an unrelenting demand for more chips. Moreover, each of these companies is exploring more advanced use cases that will, at some point, require next-generation processing capabilities.

These dynamics position Taiwan Semi at the crossroad of immediate growth and enduring long-term expansion, as AI infrastructure swiftly evolves from a constant driver of growth today into a multidecade secular theme.

TSMC’s manufacturing dominance ensures that its services will continue to witness robust demand for years to come. For this reason, I think Taiwan Semi is positioned to experience further valuation expansion over the next decade as the infrastructure chapter of the AI story continues to unfold.

While there are many great opportunities in the chip space, TSMC stands alone. I see it as perhaps the most unique, durable semiconductor stock to own amid a volatile technology landscape over the next several years.

Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel, short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft, and short November 2025 $21 puts on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending