Apple (AAPL) shares rose 3% on Friday to close at $271.42. Data from market research firm Counterpoint Research shows that in the first quarter of this year, Apple’s iPhone shipments in China surged 20% year-on-year, the fastest growth rate among major brands, while capturing a 19% market share to rank second, trailing only Huawei. BNP Paribas also upgraded its rating on Apple stock from “Neutral” to “Outperform,” raising its price target from $260 to $300.
Against the backdrop of intensifying competition in the AI arena, Apple is advancing its AI strategy through a differentiated path. A recent report from Bank of America notes that Apple continues to make progress in on-device AI, and compared to other tech giants, its stock price is less affected by AI-related volatility, positioning it as one of the “highest-quality” tech stocks at present. The team of BofA analyst Wamsi Mohan stated that Apple is strengthening its local AI capabilities through custom chips and building a supplementary computing power system with “private cloud computing.” The bank believes that the core of Apple’s AI strategy lies in local inference, a unified computing architecture, and privacy-first cloud collaboration, thereby achieving a balance between performance and data security.
The report points out that compared to tech companies heavily reliant on large-scale AI infrastructure investments, Apple has relatively low direct exposure to the AI capital expenditure cycle. Its valuation logic remains more driven by consumer electronics and service businesses, which has made its performance relatively stable amid tech stock fluctuations this year. On the hardware front, Apple’s newly launched M5 chip is seen as a significant advancement in its AI computing power system. Equipped with a next-generation GPU and a neural engine integrated into each core, the chip delivers up to four times the performance of the previous-generation M4, while unified memory bandwidth has increased by about 30%. The market expects Apple to release a higher-performance version, the M5 Ultra chip, at its WWDC in June, further refining its AI computing capabilities.
In terms of earnings, Apple is expected to announce its fiscal second-quarter results for 2026 on April 30. The market consensus projects earnings per share of $1.94 and revenue of approximately $109.26 billion, up from $1.65 and $95.36 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year, indicating a steady growth trend. BofA maintains a “Buy” rating on Apple and sets a price target of $325. Analysts believe that as AI technology gradually rolls out, Apple, leveraging its on-device computing and ecosystem advantages, is well-positioned to sustain stable growth while avoiding excessive exposure to industry volatility.
