Catenaa, Wednesday, June 17, 2026- Apple investors are losing patience with the company’s talk about becoming a more formidable presence in AI and want to see some results.
“There’s a bit of fatigue with Apple and AI,” said Tim Chubb, Chief Investment Officer at Girard, a Univest Wealth Division, which owns the stock in an underweight position, told Bloomberg. “It’s hard to extend them the same benefit of the doubt we used to since there have been so many delays.”
Wall Street was hoping the iPhone maker would come out strong at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference last week, but its presentations were considered underwhelming, and the timing of product availability disappointed.
The overhauled Siri AI assistant will launch this fall, but as a beta version, meaning it remains a work in progress. And the latest AI features won’t initially be available in the European Union or China, two key markets.
The news dashed hopes that Apple’s AI strategy is firmly on track and ready to spur a long-awaited upgrade cycle for iPhone customers.
The stock is coming off its worst week since February, and its 10% gain this year is well shy of the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index’s 19% rise.
Apple shares had rallied into the conference, soaring 15% in May for their best month since July 2022.
And the stock caught a bid on Tuesday after a Bloomberg report that the company’s camera-equipped AirPods, a next-generation foldable phone, and a fresh iPhone model will all launch in 2027.
But investors were hoping that the conference would showcase the company’s position as a leading innovator, especially in the wake of AI features it unveiled in 2024 but have been delayed since then.
Instead, the reviews were largely muted, with analysts not bothering to adjust their revenue estimates for 2027 or 2028, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Apple is expected to deliver revenue growth of nearly 15% in its 2026 fiscal year, which ends in September, up significantly from 6.4% in fiscal 2025. But analysts see that pace slowing to 8.6% in fiscal 2027 and decelerating further in the subsequent two years.
A weaker or delayed iPhone upgrade cycle could pressure Apple shares, which trade at more than 33 times estimated earnings over the next 12 months, well above their 10-year average of 23. It’s the second most expensive stock among the Magnificent Seven tech giants, trailing only high-flying Tesla.
To be sure, plenty of Wall Street pros continue to view Apple as well-positioned to benefit as consumers access external AI services through its hardware.
The problem is that the features it unveiled at the conference were seen as modest, especially relative to offerings from Anthropic, OpenAI, or Alphabet, whose Google Gemini technology is a key underpinning of Apple’s foundation AI models.
Apple executives also failed to address ways in which AI could drive revenue upside, earnings growth or cost savings, according to Needham’s Laura Martin.
The company “did nothing to suggest that it can up-charge for its AI tools and capabilities, or save money from using AI,” she wrote on June 9, adding that Apple looks overly dependent on Alphabet, “the biggest competitor in its core (smartphone) business.”
That said, the bull case for Apple is easy to see by just looking at its financials: a huge amount of cash on hand, a pristine balance sheet, steady earnings growth, and regular buybacks, something that other megacap tech stocks aren’t engaged in the way they have in the past.
Furthermore, while the company may not be a major player in AI, at least not yet, it doesn’t face risks related to heavy capital expenditures or AI disruption, which is what’s hitting software stocks.
