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Apple Inc. (AAPL) Faces Sluggish Growth as iPhone 16 Demand Disappoints, Analysts Warn

We recently published a list of 10 AI Stocks On Wall Street’s Radar. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other AI stocks that are on Wall Street’s radar today.

Unlike other companies, OpenAI does not struggle with market demand; noted Oliver Jay, managing director of international strategy at OpenAI. However, the challenge lies in converting the demand into real-world applications.

“The biggest challenge right now is … converting that enthusiasm into real-life production-ready use case,” he said. “The gap is AI fluency — to know how to turn these concepts into actual business products.”

– Oliver Jay at CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE

Jay further noted that “working with large language models is a new paradigm. It’s not software. You need to build guardrails.” This will consequently ensure reliable performance.

READ ALSO: 10 High Flying AI Stocks This Week and 12 AI Stocks Making Headlines: Latest News and Ratings

As AI competition intensifies, particularly after the emergence of DeepSeek, leading companies are moving quickly to stay ahead. In its latest, OpenAI has launched new tools for developers to help them build advanced AI agents. This will be done via a few application programming interfaces (APIs). The new tool, known as Responses API, is available to all developers at no additional cost and replaces OpenAI’s Assistants API.

AI adoption and advancements, including those from OpenAI, are rapidly happening all at once, and almost everyone wants in on them. Speaking about the rapid uptick in ChatGPT usage at the two-day live event in Singapore, Jay noted how the city-state has the highest per-capita usage of ChatGPT in the world. Moreover, the advent of artificial intelligence technology is a special opportunity for all companies.

“This is the first time Asian companies, potentially, can take a leadership role on a global stage,” he said. “Traditionally, you see technology adopted in Silicon Valley first, and then Europe. … Now there could be a company from Asia that will be the most innovative.”

Even Asian companies have a chance to lead in global innovation through artificial intelligence. Countries like China, South Korea, and India, are investing heavily in AI and can equally well challenge Silicon Valley’s dominance in the next wave of technological advancements.

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).

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 166

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a technology company. On March 13, KeyBanc analyst Brandon Nispel reiterated an Underweight rating on the stock with a $200.00 price target. The firm stated that their survey checks show spending “data overall appears negative as Apple is tracking below historical seasonality, and the y/y growth went from nicely positive to a sharp decline.”

They noted how demand for the iPhone 16e has been disappointing due to the higher price point, while “demand for the iPhone 16 Plus model remains the lowest as users who want a larger display usually opt for the Pro Max”. Meanwhile, “iPhone 16 Pro Max still seeing the highest relative demand, followed by the Pro, as customers seek camera upgrades.”

KeyBanc noted that growth is expected to remain sluggish in the future. They believe that iPhone 16 and Apple Intelligence have failed to drive meaningful changes.

“With 2025 iPhone growth expectations now 1% (down from 7% just two quarters ago), and with key catalysts around Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Intelligence Siri upgrades now delayed, we think bulls will lose confidence in any upgrade cycle hope.”

Overall, AAPL ranks 4th on our list of AI stocks that are on Wall Street’s radar today. 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. 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.

The $250 Trillion AI Hype is Real. A few years from now, you’ll probably wish you’d bought this stock.

When Jeff Bezos said that one breakthrough technology would shape Amazon’s destiny, even Wall Street’s biggest analysts were caught off guard.

Fast forward a year and Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy described generative AI as a “once-in-a-lifetime” technology that is already being used across Amazon to reinvent customer experiences.

At the 8th Future Investment Initiative conference, Elon Musk predicted that by 2040 there would be at least 10 billion humanoid robots, with each priced between $20,000 and $25,000.

Do the math. According to Musk, this technology could be worth $250 trillion by 2040.

Put another way, that’s roughly equal to:

  • 175 Teslas
  • 107 Amazons
  • 140 Metas
  • 84 Googles
  • 65 Microsofts
  • And 55 Nvidias

And here’s the wild part — this $250 trillion wave isn’t tied to one company, but to an entire ecosystem of AI innovators set to reshape the global economy.

It’s a leap so massive, it could reshape how businesses, governments, and consumers operate worldwide.

Even if that $250 trillion figure sounds ambitious, major firms like PwC and McKinsey still see AI unlocking multi-trillion-dollar potential.

How could anything be worth that much?

The answer lies in a breakthrough so powerful it’s redefining how humanity works, learns, and creates.

And this breakthrough has already set off a frenzy among hedge funds and Wall Street’s top investors.

What most investors don’t realize is that one under-owned company holds the key to this $250 trillion revolution.

In fact, Verge argues this company’s supercheap AI technology should concern rivals.

Before I reveal the details, let’s talk about how some of the richest people on the planet are positioning themselves.

  • Bill Gates sees artificial intelligence as the “biggest technological advance in my lifetime,” more transformative than the internet or personal computer, capable of improving healthcare, education, and addressing climate change.
  • Larry Ellison — through Oracle, is spending billions on Nvidia chips and partnering with Cohere to embed generative AI across Oracle’s cloud and apps.
  • Warren Buffett — not known for tech hype — says this breakthrough could have a ‘hugely beneficial social impact.

When billionaires from Silicon Valley to Wall Street line up behind the same idea — you know it’s worth paying attention to.

Even as we admire what Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet, and Microsoft have built, we believe an even greater opportunity lies elsewhere…

But the real story isn’t Nvidia — it’s a much smaller company quietly improving the critical technology that makes this entire revolution possible.

And judging by what I’m hearing from both Silicon Valley insiders and Wall Street veterans…

This prediction might not be bold at all:

A few years from now, you’ll wish you’d owned this stock.

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