The AI Spending War: Apple Is Winning Without Firing a Shot
- Apple (AAPL) reached an all-time high earlier this month. Despite not pouring billions into data center infrastructure like Oracle (ORCL) or Meta (META), Apple has outperformed both stocks over the past six months — a result that appears to be shaped more by consumer behavior than AI headlines.
- Occam’s consumer behavior tracking shows that iPhone user brand loyalty has been meaningfully higher than that of other smartphone brands for the past three years and continues to rise. This strength persists despite Apple’s comparatively muted AI rollout, suggesting users are not upgrading solely for generative AI features but for more practical improvements such as battery life and camera performance (data available upon request). In short, Apple does not need to win the AI spending war to win the customer, as loyalty compounds and restraint in capital expenditure has become a strategic advantage rather than a liability.
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