Apple stock skyrocketed Tuesday to its highest level ever as Wall Street embraced the iPhone maker’s long-awaited announcement of its generative artificial intelligence plans with open arms.
Apple CEO Tim Cook at Monday's WWDC.
Apple shares rose as much as 5% to $202.44 within an hour of the stock market’s open, notching an all-time high and crossing $200 for the first time ever, adjusting for stock splits.
The rally, which added some $125 billion to Apple’s market capitalization Tuesday, came a day after Apple rolled out a variety of AI features to come to iPhone and other devices later this year, the most notable of which is the integration of OpenAI’s hit generative AI chatbot ChatGPT directly into iPhone applications.
Investors must have slept nicely on the AI rollout, as the Apple stock rise reversed premarket losses and a modest selloff in Monday afternoon trading during and after Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference’s keynote event.
Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here.
“Apple’s keynote at WWDC showcased enough enhancements...to assure us of the expected upgrade cycle with the launch of the iPhone 16 and release of iOS18 in the fall of this year,” JPMorgan analysts led by Samik Chatterjee wrote to clients. Apple could surely use a re-ignition of iPhone sales, which are expected to fall to their lowest level since 2020 during the current quarter, according to consensus analyst forecasts compiled by FactSet.
4.6%. That’s how much Apple’s stock is up year-to-date, including dividends. That’s much worse than the S&P 500’s 13% gain, but it still indicates quite the stock market turnaround for Apple, whose shares were down 12% on the year as recently as the end of April.
Apple finally introduced its comprehensive “Apple Intelligence” generative AI offerings Monday, a much-expected announcement which rolled out upcoming upgrades to iPhones’ Siri voice assistant and across messaging, all powered by OpenAI. Apple played its AI plans far closer to the vest than its big technology peers like Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta, both of whom developed their own large-language models to compete with OpenAI’s, and Microsoft, which owns a multibillion-dollar stake in OpenAI. “Apple's stance seems to be, we don't need to pursue artificial general intelligence; we can leave that to Meta, OpenAI, et al, saving billions,” summarized Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett. Even after the recent rally, Apple remains behind Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company, a title Apple relinquished in January.