Jefferies analyst Edison Lee upgraded Apple’s stock to a hold rating Tuesday afternoon, signaling potential for “stable” performance but also expressing caution over tariffs and future sales.
Lee has had a busy year with Apple shares, moving from bearish in January to neutral in April, then back to bearish before now returning to neutral again.
While Lee noted that iPhone discounts in China might boost June-quarter numbers, he worries about sales trends in the second half of the year.
He also pointed out that Wall Street’s “benign” view of the tariff threat to Apple is “likely overly optimistic,” suggesting risks remain despite the upgrade.
Still, Lee believes that good June-quarter results “could keep the stock stable” in the near term.
Apple is reportedly considering replacing its own artificial intelligence technology with models from OpenAI or Anthropic to power an upcoming Siri upgrade, according to a Bloomberg report.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg says Apple has asked both Anthropic and OpenAI to train versions of their respective AI models — Claude and ChatGPT — for testing with Siri. However, Apple has not yet made a final decision.
The iPhone maker is still working on an in-house AI project called LLM Siri, which would use its own intelligence models.
Apple, Anthropic, and OpenAI all declined Bloomberg’s requests for comment.
In March, Apple confirmed that its highly anticipated AI features, especially improvements to Siri, would be delayed until “the coming year.” These postponed updates, including Siri’s ability to use personal context across apps and perform complex tasks, were highlighted in TV ads that Apple has since pulled.
This delay is notable as competitors like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI continue to advance their AI offerings. For a company known as an innovation leader, falling behind in what many consider the next major tech revolution threatens Apple’s premium brand status — a risk highlighted by this latest report.
At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple introduced its Foundation Models framework, which gives third-party developers access to on-device large language models powering Apple Intelligence. This framework lets developers build AI features that run entirely offline and currently powers most of Apple’s AI capabilities.
Apple’s “thoughtful” AI strategy—focused on privacy and on-device processing rather than pure power—may pay off over time. But with technology evolving rapidly, the company risks losing ground to competitors rolling out powerful AI features now, rather than in 2026 or later.
Apple has also pushed back its AI health service and redesigned Health app to late 2026.
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