We recently published a list of 10 AI Stocks on Latest News and Ratings. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other AI stocks on latest news and ratings.
Elon Musk recently sparked skepticism in the AI community by claiming that companies funding the Stargate initiative lack the funds to do so. The Stargate initiative is a $500 billion artificial intelligence project recently announced by President Donald Trump. The project aims to build new AI data centers in the US.
Three prominent figures in the initiative are SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son who will handle the financing, CEO Sam Altman of OpenAI who will be contributing his overall AI expertise, and Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison who will oversee the buildout. All three joined President Trump on January 21 when he made the Stargate announcement.
READ NOW: 10 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street and 10 AI Stocks to Watch Amid the DeepSeek Buzz
Musk has claimed that this initiative doesn’t have the necessary funding in place, which in turn sparked a dispute between him and Sam Altman. Altman has refuted Musk’s claim, asserting that the funding is in place and that the work has already started. Larry Ellison, in particular, has noted that 10 data centers, each 500,000 square feet, are already under construction in Abilene, Texas, and that 10 more are in the pipeline.
Musk is currently leading Trump’s new government efficiency advisory board, DOGE. He also shares a tense relationship with Altman and is engaged in an ongoing lawsuit with OpenAI. In response to Musk’s claims, Trump answered questions from reporters at the White House, dismissing the criticism. Trump was asked if Musk’s criticism of the deal was a bother to him.
“It doesn’t. He hates one of the people in the deal,” Trump said of Musk. “People in the deal are very, very smart people. But, Elon, one of the people he happens to hate. I have certain hatreds of people, too”.
-President Donald Trump, as reported on Reuters.
Regarding the claims regarding the insufficient funding, Trump said that he doesn’t know but he hopes that they do.
“I don’t know if they do, but you know, they’re putting up the money. The government’s not putting up anything, they’re putting up money. They’re very rich people, so I hope they do”.
A Trump adviser also wondered whether the public dispute may imply an end for Trump and Musk.
“The end may be in sight,” the adviser said.
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.
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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 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: 158
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a technology company that has recently launched Apple Intelligence, its intelligence system. One of the biggest analyst calls on Wednesday, January 29, was for Apple Inc. Oppenheimer downgraded the stock to “Perform” from “Outperform” and removed its $250 price target on the stock. The ratings, issued ahead of its earnings on January 29, quoted a “weaker outlook” for iPhone sales in the next 12 to 18 months, a lack of AI innovation, and challenges in the Chinese market. The analyst also expects a slower-than-expected iPhone replacement cycle heading into fiscal 2026. In this period, he sees just 2% shipment growth. The analyst noted the gradual rollout of Apple Intelligence, Apple’s lack of generative AI apps for consumers, and the advancements in capabilities from other AI models to cause this slow growth. Due to these reasons, the analyst believes it will be difficult for Apple to outperform.
“We see little upside to Apple’s valuation and believe it is hard to justify its premium multiple with slower iPhone growth and Apple’s uncertain role in the early stages of gen AI adoption among consumers”.
Overall, AAPL ranks 2nd on our list of AI stocks on latest news 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 timeframe. 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 Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
