Cook's iPhone Legacy Clouded by AI Miss

Under Tim Cook's leadership, Apple has sold an astonishing 3.1 billion iPhones, more than doubling its market share of the S&P 500 from 3% to 6%. However, despite this impressive achievement, some question whether Apple's decision to sit out the AI arms race may ultimately doom it.

The FT reports that Apple's market cap has dropped below Nvidia's, with the latter's value now standing at $5.25 trillion compared to Apple's $4.78 trillion. This shift is largely due to Nvidia's dominance in AI chips, which has led to a surge in its market value.

Cook's inability to replicate the iPhone's success with other products has also been criticized, particularly given that it has been nearly two decades since the first iPhone was launched. While Cook has continued to update and add features to the iPhone, some argue that this is not enough to sustain the company's growth in an increasingly competitive market.

The article highlights Apple's adoption of Google's Gemini product, which will power Apple Intelligence and Siri, as a strategic move that may have saved the company money but also gives Google huge distribution across Apple's installed hardware base. This could ultimately help Google compete with OpenAI and Anthropic in the AI sector.