Gregg Thurman on Mark Gurman: What Apple needs from Broadcom and vice versa - 'Could this AI server, that Gurman alludes to, be an extension of the Mac Mini/Mac Studio servers, that are way back ordered, whose purpose will be to power on site AI agents, thereby bypassing the need for tokens, being much more highly specialized and very protective of proprietary data? Have I got the application right? It seems to me that these servers will address a very large market (bigger than general purpose data centers?) where privacy and security is extremely important.'
on How Apple hedges foreign exchange fluctuations - 'Key Takeaways from the Data The $66 Billion Vulnerability: Roughly $66.1 billion of Apple’s $111.18 billion quarterly revenue came from outside the Americas. When the U.S. dollar is exceptionally strong, the growth rates in Europe, China, and Japan look smaller on paper than they actually are in local currencies. [1] Europe as the Primary FX Target: Because the Europe segment has quietly surpassed Greater China to become Apple’s dominant international market, fluctuating exchange rates against the Euro and Pound have the largest single impact on Apple’s international bottom line. [1, 2] Defying the Headwinds: Despite a stronger dollar dragging down conversion values, Apple managed to post 17% year-over-year revenue growth in Q2 2026. This was heavily driven by robust global demand for the iPhone 17 lineup and an all-time record high in Services revenue ($30.98 billion). [1, 2] If you want to keep exploring, we can look into how Apple’s Services division protects its profit margins against currency drops, or see how a strong dollar changes things for U.S. travelers going abroad. What sounds best?” The excerpt that PED posted follows the above, goes here, and illustrates how Apple can hedge against currency fluctuations.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'Re: “[Samsung] reported stellar preliminary results on Tuesday, but its shares still cratered 6.9%.” It’s almost comforting to know this phenomenon applies to companies other than Apple…'
on Still no Siri AI for EU, despite Tim Cook's efforts - 'They did redesign the Switch 2 to conform to the battery regulations. And that makes me wonder, what liability Nintendo will have when a 3rd party battery goes bad and sets one on fire, or burns a kid?'
on J.P. Morgan raises Apple target $20 on price elasticity - 'Perspective: Service life for iPhones has gone up in the last 10 years from about 3 – 4 years then and 4 – 7 years now, per AI search. In that view, TCO has barely increased. Cumulative inflation over the last 11 years was over 40%. Finally, used iPhones address the price-sensitve market, and more as low-end vendors must raise prices.'
on J.P. Morgan raises Apple target $20 on price elasticity - 'To me the interesting thing in this call is the specificity of the price target dates. Dec 26 target is still 325. Dec 27 target is 345. So incremental growth in the stock price over the next 18 months. A little over 10% from yesterday’s closing price. Not a very strong expectation.'
on Ming-Chi Quo: The foldable iPhone will sell out on Day 1 - 'When Apple is doing well, like to get my kids, Apple gift cards for phones, laptops, watches, etc. It will be interesting to see if any of them use the money for foldable'
on Horace Dediu: Where is Nvidia in a decade? - 'The Dot Com era provides a useful analogue to the current AI boom. Back then Cisco was the ‘picks and shovels’ company that shot to prominence, providing the infrastructure until the bubble burst and Cisco’s stock price crashed. It took 20 years to recover. Nvidia is a picks and shovels company and once the data centre build out is complete the frenetic activity will subdue as surely will Nvidia’s stock price.'
on Horace Dediu: Where is Nvidia in a decade? - 'Obviously one has to ignore all the circular financing that Nvidia’s involved in to decide it’s the best company of the future. And that Nvidia’s sales will quake if OpenAI craters, or the AI-investor world wakes up to the fact that there’s no proprietary advantage to any of the mega-scaler LLMs out there (and therefore no business or investment moat), and they are all floating on a buildout of data-centers that have an operational lifespan of 3 or 4 years before they become technologically obsolete and unprofitable. Where will Nvidia be in 10 years? I’d say it’s impossible to tell. But I’m betting heavily that there will be a full-blown shakeout among the big AI stock-plays long before that.'
on Horace Dediu: Where is Nvidia in a decade? - 'Hap, very interesting. Thanks for posting. “The conversation has now changed” is significant. Watching that video commentary is reassuring, because it reminds me that Apple is addressing A.I. very soberly and carefully. As the consumer’s preeminent gatekeeper who actually gives a damn about user’s privacy – they are taking their time to apply it appropriately, and will come out ahead as a result – as will Apple investors like us. MY TAKE Nobody was asking for AI. There are maybe 7 guys in Silicon Valley who’ve been shoving AI down the world’s throat. Half of them act like, or are sociopaths, some are ‘on the spectrum’ – while several are both. I mean, Sam, Alex , Thiel, Mark and Elon are bonafide – with a lack of empathy that could rival Vladimir’s. The daily hyperventilating by the financial media and the drooling by the casino-ologists on Wall Street (Yes, I made that word up) is more hyperbolic than a super-pac of hungry hyenas with too much of other people’s money to chew on. If I was a conspiracy nut, I’d say there are AI aliens from the great beyond remotely manipulating the human race to replace itself and evolve into AIs … just like them. Even if not true, it could make a cool sci-fi movie. Just sayin’'
on Horace Dediu: Where is Nvidia in a decade? - 'I’m too old to vote for something that I won’t be able to have the satisfaction of proving myself right! 🙂'
on Ming-Chi Quo: The foldable iPhone will sell out on Day 1 - 'I’ll be buying an 18 Pro but I’d be delighted if both the Pro and folding iPhone sell like hotcakes'
on Horace Dediu: Where is Nvidia in a decade? - 'I continue to follow Errol Brandt at kiraa.ai. In a recent post he claims that companies will tire of 1) the expense of AI, and 2) the loss of privacy when their data is run through the cloud. If Brand’s approach gets some traction, that could be of great benefit to Apple. “Did Alex Karp Just Agree With Me?”: https://youtu.be/fVC-z4ptOlk'
on Premarket: Apple is red - '“Premarket: Apple is red” Um, Apple is not only solidly green, it’s gotten within $3.20 of its ATH. IMO, he selloffs following the WWDC are two of the dumbest selloffs ever – and apparently Mr. Market agrees with me….'
on Horace Dediu: Where is Nvidia in a decade? - 'Is Horace right? He implies that Nvidia can’t be the best over, say, the next 50 years and will certainly not do as well as Apple? (I wish the WSJ had specified the length of time they meant by “future” but they didn’t; I pick 50 years arbitrarily.) It’s easy to agree with Horace that ranking Apple, one of only three companies with a CAGR of 20% + on average over 30 years (the other two being Berkshire which did it for 55 years, and Microsoft) at #12 seems silly. 11 other companies will do better than Apple? Possible, but the WSJ claims to know which 11 companies those are, which I am sure they don’t. But picking the top company is tricky. Any company can suffer a bad CEO transition (Apple’s been there, done that), failure to pivot fast enough (looking at you, Intel), or suffer any of a range of calamities that could knock it out of the running for the top spot. Similarly, can a company that got lucky (in phones or chips, for example) extend that win over half a century? And if so, which one will be the winner? I am less sanguine that anyone can know for sure, even as we can agree that Apple (and I would add Nvidia) will be in the top 5. Apple stands at the intersection of consumers and technology, as Horace points out, a great place to be. But we can’t know whether some other company might elbow its way into that spot and nudge Apple aside. Nvidia is already working on PCs, SpaceX is already working on phones, for example. In any case, I am conducting a survey. I’d be interested in other people’s answers to that question: what company will have the best return/CAGR over the next half century?'
