Apple lags on AI and suffers from AI-driven cost shocks to components such as memory and storage. x.com
Steve Hou
Head of Research at Silicon Data, AI Compute Markets
Apple is a sell here because buybacks are replacing innovation while its share price is dangerously extended. It is not spending on AI, in cloud services, making robots or pursuing global WiFi; its VR, Siri chatbot and iCar efforts have failed. Its flip phone follows Samsung's, and AirPods have poor battery life and microphones. The share price has held up, but only for now. x.com
Apple's roughly 35x forward earnings premium looks unsustainable. If fear around the AI trade fades, its gains could stall or reverse. x.com x.com
Apple is a safe haven amid AI-stock volatility and will gain momentum if it persists over the next two weeks through the midterms. New products and another defensive day bring a momentum push toward $358, then $367 in November closer. x.com
Apple's valuation pays too hefty a premium for its expected long-term earnings growth. Its forward P/E-to-growth ratio is 2.58; even if the market sees its hardware moat and ability to exploit others' AI investments despite underinvesting itself as a winning strategy, that premium is too high. x.com
Apple's price is held up by index dispersion and gamma positioning rather than its business value. Its supposed bull case is that, as a non-AI name, it moves inversely to AI stocks; only flows strong enough to break the gamma grip permit price discovery. Fair value is 75% below the current price. x.com
Apple is the obvious flight to safety in US markets because it wins on access to cheap memory and on open-source AI. x.com
Memory-cost pressure, weak volumes and weak services should make Apple's quarter bad, giving the short a chance to work on this quarter alone. Other hardware companies this quarter also point to weakness, though Apple has been a terrible short so far. x.com x.com
Apple looks unattractive at 31x next-12-month EPS as memory prices are set to hurt both its revenue and gross margins. Not investing heavily in AI capex or LLM training helps in the near term but carries longer-term risks. x.com
Apple is increasingly rewarded as a good steward of capital in the AI race, an AI beneficiary and a safe haven from the capex wars. In a recession triggered by an AI bubble popping, Apple would be the ultimate consumer staple and surprise to the upside, potentially scooping up AI infrastructure cheaply and benefiting from local LLMs. x.com
Apple has failed so badly at AI that there is little reason to own more of the stock. It should have been the biggest and best in AI right out of the gate and has no excuse for falling behind. x.com x.com