The biggest question after Apple changed CEOs in September: Will they spend money to acquire a major AI company?

In September, Apple changed leadership, with Ternus succeeding Cook. Facing the crisis of falling behind in AI, can the new leader break with conservative discipline and lead this "profit machine" from scale-driven to AI innovation? With an unprecedented shift in investment stance, Wall Street is betting that Apple may be planning an unprecedented AI mega-acquisition, and a counterattack by the giants is imminent.

Apple's hardware chief John Ternus will succeed Tim Cook as CEO this September. Apple under Cook was known for its scale and execution, but it appeared overly conservative in the AI arms race. With the handover this September, Wall Street is betting on whether the new leader can guide the world's second-largest company by market capitalization through a truly meaningful strategic transformation.

In his latest research report, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan raised the core question: "Can Apple shift from an era driven by scale and execution to a new era driven by AI innovation?" This question has ignited the market's imagination about Apple's future strategic direction.

Mohan believes that Apple is gradually abandoning its long-held net cash neutrality stance and instead increasing spending, a sign that "may indicate a period of more intensive R&D investment" and even a possible large-scale acquisition. With other tech giants having already invested hundreds of billions of dollars in AI, whether Apple will make up for this under its new CEO is the core question that investors are currently most concerned about.

Cook's Legacy: The Glory and Limitations of a Machine of Scale

Cook has led Apple for nearly 15 years, transforming it into a global leader in consumer electronics.

Under his leadership, Apple established an efficient supply chain management system and continued to monetize its massive user base of over 2.5 billion devices through services such as Apple Pay and Apple Music, while also establishing user privacy as a core brand value.

However, this operational philosophy, known for its execution and discipline, has become a point of contention in the AI era. While tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are investing heavily in AI infrastructure and platform innovation, Apple has chosen to observe and exercise caution.

Some investors criticize Apple for lagging behind in AI infrastructure development and platform innovation; however, others argue that this restraint makes Apple a solid alternative in the tech stock portfolio—compared to its peers that are burning through cash in pursuit of uncertain returns.

Ternus's core challenge: balancing innovation with its existing profit-generating machine.

As Apple's head of hardware engineering, Ternus was deeply involved in advancing Apple's self-developed chip strategy. Mohan predicts that Apple's core business will remain largely stable during the new CEO's term, but Ternus also faces pressures that his predecessor did not confront head-on—making bigger bets at a faster pace in a cycle of accelerating AI innovation.

In its research report, Mohan wrote, "Apple is already large enough, highly profitable, and deeply embedded in users' lives; simply 'striving for excellence' may no longer be enough to redefine the company. Ternus' challenge lies in both protecting the profit machine built by Cook and rekindling the market's expectations for technological surprises from Apple."

In terms of specific direction, Ternus needs to integrate AI capabilities into Apple's hardware product line and drive the adoption of AI features across its 2.5 billion device user base. This vast distribution network is a unique competitive advantage for Apple, but whether it can translate into substantial growth depends on whether AI features can genuinely improve the user's daily experience.

Apple Intelligence Deployed: Can Siri Undergo a Transformation?

Apple's Apple Intelligence feature and a redesigned Siri will be officially rolled out to users this fall—two years after their initial announcement. The market's patience regarding the pace of Apple's AI rollout is being tested.

Mohan points out that a truly competitive Siri must go beyond the capabilities of a basic chatbot, being able to access personalized contextual information on the device and execute complex, multi-step tasks. This places higher demands on Apple's integration capabilities in chips, operating systems, localization, and privacy protection.

Mohan wrote, "With Apple's self-developed chips, on-device processing, privacy architecture, operating system, personal contextual data, and massive installed base, Ternus is poised to further solidify Apple's dominant position on the device side in the AI-enabled era." This is also the core of whether Apple can carve out a differentiated path in this round of AI competition.

Large-scale mergers and acquisitions: Never before seen, but perhaps on the horizon.

Apple has historically rarely made large-scale acquisitions, a stark contrast to other tech giants' strategy of rapidly strengthening their AI capabilities through mergers and acquisitions. However, Apple's move this year to abandon its net cash neutral stance ahead of schedule has been interpreted by some analysts as a strategic signal.

Mohan explicitly pointed out that large-scale R&D investment and major acquisitions "were not emphasized during the Cook era," but the accelerated pace of AI technology may force Apple to change this practice. For investors, whether Ternus will lead a truly significant AI acquisition will be the most direct litmus test for observing the strategic vision of the new management team.