Apple's shares suddenly fell a few minutes later on Monday to WWDC's keynote speech. The perpetrator looks like a word: siri.
Approximately six minutes after the presentation, Apple's stock fell sharply by more than 2.5% from around $206 to under $201. This amounts to approximately $75 billion in market value.
Just a few seconds ago, Apple Software Chief Craig Federighi had registered Apple Intelligence features that had already been rolling out in recent months, including Genmoji, Smart Replies, and Photo Cleanup Tools. He then pivoted at Siri. That's when things get troubling.
“We continue to work to provide the capabilities to make Siri even more personal,” Federighi said. “This task took more time to reach a quality bar and I look forward to sharing more next year.”
Translation: Apple's long-standing Siri AI revamp is not ready yet. Investors probably didn't like to hear it.
“WWDC laid out the developer's vision, but there were no major advancements in Apple Intelligence,” wrote Dan Ives, a tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, in a note to investors.
“We get the strategy, but this is a big year when Apple monetizes on the AI front. In the end, Cook & Co. could be forced to make some bigger AI acquisitions to jump this AI strategy,” Ives added. “Apple is very confident that they can do this right, but they have a strict window to understand this.”
Wall Street is hoping and waiting for a big AI to move forward from Apple for about a year. There was not much high hopes that WWDC 2025 would bring about major new advances here.
However, competitors like Google, Microsoft, Openai are moving ahead with new generative AI models, chatbot upgrades and features coming out every week. Instead, on Monday, Apple repeated the message that key AI features were still in work.
Earlier this year, Apple had to draw an ad after the industry watchdog said its “now available” claims about Apple Intelligence, including the next-generation Siri, exaggerated what was actually ready.
The delay highlights a deeper problem. Apple is slowing down the construction of modern AI-powered infrastructure and foundation models.
“The silence surrounding Siri was deafening. This topic was quickly sidelined at an uncertain time of next year,” Forester analyst Dipanjang Chatterjee told Business Insider. “As Apple continues to tweak Apple Intelligence's features, the amount of text corrections and cute emojis can't fill in the yawning blanks of the intuitive, interactive AI experiences that Siri knows can do when it's ready. We don't know when that will happen.”
Apple's old playbook was to keep it quiet until everything was perfect. However, with AI Arms Race, waiting may not be possible. These days, just accepting that you're not ready can be enough to wipe out hundreds of billions at market value.
“The end of the Siri runway is rising rapidly,” Chatterjee said. “Apple needs to be lifted.”
Jordan Hart contributed the report.
