We recently published a list of Mag7 and Beyond: Top 10 AI News Updates and Ratings. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other top AI news updates and ratings.
According to a study presented at a European Central Bank conference, companies that manage to survive the upheaval caused by the adoption of artificial intelligence will eventually leverage AI to help them thrive in the longer run. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and surveys covering the period between 2017 and 2021, authors of the study found that companies that had adopted AI early on in the manufacturing sector saw their productivity drop after they replaced human workers with robots.
These findings are undoubtedly against the notion that technology, particularly AI, makes work more productive. However, Kristina McElheran, one of the authors of the paper, highlighted how there is a lot of pain in the short run. This pain, particularly the drop in productivity, has been due to the interference of AI with manufacturers’ established practices, such as keeping low inventories. Over time, these firms begin to outperform in all areas, including sales, productivity, and employment, as noted in the study.
READ ALSO: 10 AI Stocks Dominating the News This Week and 9 Trending AI Stocks Making Headlines Today.
While traditional companies are rushing to adopt AI in their operations, artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI are in turn racing to advance AI research and enhance their tools. Last Monday, the company said it would it would raise $40 billion in a new funding round led by SoftBank Group at a $300 billion valuation. While the firm has agreed to fund OpenAI with $10 billion in mid-April and an additional $30 billion in December, it has done so on the condition that OpenAI will transition to for-profit by the end of the year.
In the case that OpenAI’s restructuring fails, the tech investment group’s investment will drop to $20 billion. With the firm having closed a $6.6 billion funding round in October, the new funding will nearly double the valuation of the AI startup.
“OpenAI has very ambitious plans on many fronts and needs a lot of capital to achieve these goals. The list of investors wanting to support that scope has shrunk and may be largely limited to Soft Bank, which itself may not have the necessary capital.”
– D.A. Davidson & Co analyst Gil Luria.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 166
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a technology company. On March 31, Barclays reiterated the stock as “Underweight,” stating that it has a “challenging growth backdrop, undefined AI strategy and a premium valuation.”
“According to our sell-through checks, iPhone sell-through in China has been muted since the IP16 launch. AAPL continues to experience market share losses in China. Especially in Feb when Android were strong, relatively muted iPhones imply additional points of share losses.”
Analysts on Wall Street currently have a consensus “Buy” rating on the stock. The average price target of $254 implies a 25% upside, however, the Street-high target of $325 implies an upside of 60%.
Overall, AAPL ranks 6th on our list of top AI news updates and ratings. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
