00:00 Speaker A

One name that has caught my attention in this Mag 7, it is Apple. And I’m I’m going to double click. That’s me double clicking. What in the world’s going on with Apple here?

00:07 Speaker B

Well, as Anj just pointed out, that was one of the that is one of the laggards to kick off 2026 and Apple continues to try to get into this AI game and it seems like they just can’t keep a hold here. And that’s the story that we heard in 2025 and it seems like it’s the ghost moving into 2026. There’s a few key reasons here. Not only the AI strategy, but also what its competitors like Google. We’ve seen the year-to-date run there, what it’s doing, and also these executive departures. And keeping in mind if you do still look at the YF Interactive, what we are seeing there is this market cap for Google continue or rather surpass for the first time during Wednesday’s trading session, that of Apple. Keep in mind, Apple had cross crossed $4 trillion earlier this year because of the fact that they had that record strong iPhone sales. and now they’re falling behind Google because of that key Gemini launch that has done really, really well for Google. Also, it seems like everything they do is just working right now in this environment. You have those executive departures at Apple, that’s also hitting the company. The COO left, or rather is retiring, the head of government affairs is retiring, General Council, AI chief retiring over at Apple. and then on top of that, you have their design vice president who went to Meta. and all in the background, you also have Tim Cook, who is supposedly training the next executive to take the helm early in early 2026, as soon as earlier this year. and then on top of that too, once again, that AI strategy continues to lag behind the other competitors, especially Google. and even though product has always done well for Apple, they seem to be supposedly launching this foldable phone this year. Their Siri, the AI strategy within their Siri products, just doesn’t seem to be what the market wants right now. And so those three K key things, AI strategy, executive departures, and competitors is what’s really hitting Apple yet again in the early innings of 2026.

02:07 Speaker A

Tim, I can’t think of anything I would want less than a foldable iPhone. I don’t want a foldable iPhone, but nonetheless, are you a buyer on this Apple weakness?

02:17 Tim

Well, Brian, I think one of the issues that we’ve seen with with Apple over the last couple of years is product innovation and their competitors have been really outpacing them in a pretty big way, uh, you know, in the in these different areas. You know, we view Apple as a high-quality stock, obviously something long-term that we think makes sense in in in the portfolio. Not something that we necessarily think uh is a big risk. But when we look at some of the growth opportunities, I I think you know, it’s trading down at the level it is for a reason.