I think shareholders are fine with Tim Cook as a CEO.

I sometimes read posts on here and just laugh.

Its easy to sit in the armchair and say "just be a visionary bro" when they forget Tim worked under Steve for awhile before his death - he has some sense and understanding of what it takes to get a great product out of the door.

Nvidia is generating a lot of revenue, sure - but what is the downstream impact on its customers with the hardware? All they have right now is negative returns to show for their spending. Could this change? Maybe. Is it likely? Not in my view.

As it stands, Apple has made the absolute right choice in not wasting its cash and is demonstrating discipline. Which when all this LLM mania quietens, shareholders will respect.

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nxobject 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Arguably, it’s why investors go in for Apple in the first place: Apple’s revenue fundamentally comes from consumer spending, whose prospects are relatively well understood by the average investor.

(I think it’s why big shareholders don’t get angry that Apple doesn’t splash their cash around: their core value proposition is focused in a dizzying tech market; take it or leave it. It’s very Warren Buffett.)

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moduspol 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

This. I wouldn’t exactly give them bonus points for the handling of Apple Intelligence, but beyond that, they’ve taken a much more measured and evidence-based approach to LLMs than the rest of big tech.

If it ends up that we are in a bubble and it pops, Apple may be among the least impacted in big tech.

	▲	ChrisMarshallNY 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Friend of mine, used to work for Apple. He told me that a popular Apple saying is "We're late to the party, but always best-dressed." I understand this. I'm not sure their choice of outfit has always been the best, but they have had enough success to continue making money.
	▲	billbrown 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Toyota did this with the EV mania until they lost their nerve and got rid of Toyoda as CEO. I hope Apple doesn't fall into the same trap. (I never thought Toyota would give in either.)

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spease 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes. And everyone is glossing over the benefit of unified memory for LLM applications. Apple may not have the models, but it has customer goodwill, a platform, and the logistical infrastructure to roll them out. It probably even has the cash to buy some AI companies outright; maybe not the big ones (for a reasonable amount, anyway) but small to midsize ones with domain-specific models that could be combined.

Not to mention the “default browser” leverage it has with with iPhones, iPods, and watches.

	▲	j45 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Unified memory and examples like the M1 Ultra still being able to hold it's own years later might be one of the things that not all Mac users and non-mac users alike have experienced. It's nice to see 16 Gb becoming the minimum, to me it should have been 32 for a long time.