--- title: "Apple Criticized for Lagging in AI, but Wall Street Is Reassessing Cook’s Strategy of “Winning Without Fighting”" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/284278413.md" description: "With the capabilities of large AI models now nearly evenly matched, AI may ultimately become a highly fragmented industry where participants struggle to secure excess profits. Cook has never engaged in a \"Money Churning\" AI race, choosing instead to safeguard the iPhone as the most critical value gateway and using cash reserves to retain Options Backdating for the future" datetime: "2026-04-27T23:05:17.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/284278413.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284278413.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/284278413.md) --- # Apple Criticized for Lagging in AI, but Wall Street Is Reassessing Cook’s Strategy of “Winning Without Fighting” As Apple CEO Tim Cook prepares to step down, controversies surrounding his tenure have come to the fore. Critics focus on Apple’s apparent lag in the AI field, questioning its delayed timing. However, another perspective is gaining traction on Wall Street: **Cook may have never intended to participate in a "Money Churning" AI race, opting instead to protect the iPhone as the most critical value node and using cash to preserve Options Backdating for the future.** **Currently, the capabilities of large AI models are nearly evenly matched, suggesting that AI could ultimately become a highly fragmented industry where participants find it difficult to achieve excess profits.** Apple’s iPhone shipments reached a record **247 million units** this year, capturing 43% of global smartphone market revenue. Meanwhile, the company has accumulated **$145 billion in cash and marketable securities**, an advantage that is likely its most valuable chip before the AI competitive landscape becomes clear. ## The Battle for Bottlenecks: The iPhone as a Key Value Node The underlying logic of Cook’s strategy lies in a profound grasp of "value chain bottlenecks." **In most value chains, companies that control key nodes often reap substantial profits.** For instance, TSMC produces approximately 90% of the world’s top-tier chips with a gross margin of around 60%, with both Apple and NVIDIA among its paying customers. Smartphones represent the most valuable bottleneck in the modern economy. In the third quarter of 2025, Apple captured 43% of global smartphone market revenue with an average selling price (ASP) of $870, compared to an industry average ASP of just $351. This advantage extends to other product lines as well—tech media outlet Engadget stated in its review of the new MacBook Neo that the device "dwarfs all Windows PCs under $600." Brand valuation firm Interbrand has ranked Apple as the world’s most valuable brand for 13 consecutive years. ## Lessons from Microsoft: Importance Does Not Equate to Dominance The decision made by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer 17 years ago serves as a key reference for understanding Cook’s restraint. In 2009, Ballmer launched Bing, arguing that "search is too important to give away," and leveraged Microsoft’s financial strength to catch up. As a result, Bing accumulated losses of $5.5 billion in its first two years. Fifteen years later, Bing holds only about 5% of the global search market, while Google still commands approximately 90%. Ballmer’s cost was not limited to book losses. This catch-up effort also caused Microsoft to lose significant focus in mobile devices and tablets—battlefields that ultimately reshaped the industry landscape. Search is important for the entire industry, but for Microsoft, it was a position it could never dominate—the cost was money, but the loss was the more precious strategic focus. ## Near Parity: AI May Be a Battlefield No One Can Dominate Technological realities support Cook’s calculations. According to Epoch AI’s capability index, the average gap between open-weight frontier models and closed-source models is about three months, and this gap sometimes disappears entirely. At the top of the Chatbot Arena leaderboard, the scores of four US labs—Anthropic, Elon Musk’s xAI, Alphabet’s Google, and OpenAI—differ by only a few percentage points. **In a landscape of near parity, AI may ultimately become a sector that is valuable to the entire industry but where it is difficult for any single player to establish dominance—highly fragmented and challenging for sustained profitability.** ## $145 Billion: A Strategically Flexible Option Cook’s restraint is not inaction; rather, while defending existing advantages, he has accumulated $145 billion in cash and marketable securities. This capital itself is a strategic option: **If AI truly explodes, Apple has the financial strength to directly acquire a frontier lab; if the AI hype fades into a bubble, no company is better positioned than Apple to capitalize after the bubble bursts.** Apple has demonstrated a viable path for this "low-cost" strategy—paying Google approximately $1 billion annually for Gemini system integration, while Google pays Apple roughly 20 times that amount in exchange for default search engine status on the iPhone. The stark disparity in willingness to pay between the two companies sends a clear signal: in their assessment, the current cooperative value of the iPhone far exceeds that of AI models. ### Related Stocks - [AAPL.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPL.US.md) - [AAPU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPU.US.md) - [AAPX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPX.US.md) - [AAPB.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPB.US.md) - [AAPD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPD.US.md) - [AAPY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPY.US.md) - [APLY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/APLY.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [Apple Stock: Analyst Estimates & Ratings](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284237212.md) - [11:25 ETCopperline Golf Launches AI Voice Caddy App on iOS and Android](https://longbridge.com/en/news/283861313.md) - [Apple Pulled Cal AI for Deceptive Billing Design, Not External Payments](https://longbridge.com/en/news/283550760.md) - [Now there's an AI tool that adds typos into your emails — so it looks like you didn't use AI](https://longbridge.com/en/news/283879289.md) - [SAS AI Navigator to bring order to AI chaos](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284419261.md)