Analyst Calling for Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook’s Exit Says Company ‘Fooled’ Investors About AI

Apple is one of the 10 Buzzing Stocks Everyone is Talking About.

Walter Piecyk from LightShed Partners recently talked about his note discussing his thoughts on Apple needing a new CEO. The analyst believes Tim Cook can be replaced by a “product-focused” CEO and plans for leadership replacement could bode well for the stock. He believes Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) “fooled” investors about its AI plans.

“I mean, they effectively fooled investors last year at WWDC, making them believe that there was a path to AI when none existed. We all know the state of Siri today. I know it’s been bantered about—Perplexity perhaps being an option to acquire. That’s not a, you know, an LLM in the sense of ChatGPT, right? This is a wrapper for existing LLMs. But frankly, it’s a better situation than they’re in today. And you can’t just snap your fingers. This is like the concept of moving production from China to India—you just don’t snap your fingers and all of a sudden, you know, change your production overnight. Same thing with AI. Look at the capex that Facebook and Google and others have invested in AI, and then look at the capex that Apple has invested in, which has been non-existent. So you just don’t overnight create an AI strategy that’s homegrown. And then, alternatively, Perplexity is, you know, a possible solution that maybe, you know, pushes them forward and gives them a starting point that at least they can build off of,” he said during an interview with CNBC.

Photo by Alexandr Bormotin on Unsplash

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is desperately in need of new catalysts. The company’s revenue in China fell 8% in fiscal year 2024, following a 2% decline the previous year. The Chinese market accounts for about 15% of Apple’s total revenue, so this downtrend cannot be ignored.

Investors had hopes from the Wearables, Home, and Accessories segment, but so far its performance has been weak. Vision Pro faces tough competition from Meta’s $500 Quest and the more affordable Quest 3S, making it hard to justify its $3,500 price tag. The failure of Apple’s HomePod, unable to compete with Amazon’s and Google’s lower-priced offerings, further highlights the challenges in this market.

Apple’s iPhone 16 has not shown promising growth prospects yet, and investors are still in a wait-and-see mode on the AI platform.

Mar Vista U.S. Quality Premier Strategy stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares came under pressure in the first half of calendar 2025 amid concerns over softening iPhone demand, rising competition from Huawei in China, challenges related to the rollout of Apple Intelligence, its new on-device AI offering, and potential tariff-related headwinds. Despite these near-term pressures, we continue to view Apple as a competitively advantaged business, anchored by the strength of its ecosystem. With over 2 billion active devices and more than 1 billion paying subscribers, Apple benefits from a loyal customer base and a growing stream of high-margin, recurring services revenue. This stable cash flow enables continued investment in innovation, even during periods of cyclical softness. We believe the current headwinds are transitory, and Apple remains well-positioned to lead in the emerging category of AI-enabled edge devices.”

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.