We recently compiled a list of the 10 AI Stocks That Wall Street Is Betting On. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against the other AI stocks.

Elon Musk has been pressing hard to halt OpenAI’s transition into a for-profit entity. But the high-stakes legal battle isn’t seemingly working out in his favor. In the latest news, a U.S. judge has denied the billionaire's request for a preliminary injunction to pause OpenAI's transition to a for-profit model. However, she did agree to a fast-track trial in the fall of this year to address his claims against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman.

According to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, Musk doesn’t have "the high burden required for a preliminary injunction" to block the conversion of OpenAI. However, Rogers wrote in the order that she wanted to resolve the lawsuit quickly given "the public interest at stake and potential for harm if a conversion contrary to law occurred."

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The filing noted that even though the plaintiffs “failed to meet their burden of proof for the extraordinary relief requested,” other aspects of Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI can proceed. Currently, OpenAI is overseen by a non-profit parent that Elon Musk recently offered to buy. However, the company's board unanimously rejected the $97.4 billion offer to buy OpenAI.

Since Musk has become Altman’s chief adversary, he has been putting obstacles in OpenAI’s path to becoming a for-profit entity, claiming that the AI startup will deviate from its original mission of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity. OpenAI and Altman have denied these accusations, stating that the shift is essential to raise capital and effectively compete in the rapidly evolving AI industry.

OpenAI has welcomed the judge's recent decision, stating that the lawsuit by Musk, who launched rival startup xAI in 2023, has "always been about competition". Meanwhile, Marc Toberoff, a lawyer for Musk, said they were pleased the judge "offered an expedited trial on the core claims driving this case".

“We look forward to a jury confirming that Altman accepted Musk's charitable contributions knowing full well they had to be used for the public's benefit rather than his own enrichment.”

-Marc Toberoff.

For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points  (see more details here).

A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 166

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a technology company. One of the biggest analyst calls on Thursday, March 6^th, was for Apple Inc. Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng reiterated the stock as “Buy”, stating that it is sticking with its buy rating after the company unveiled new Mac products. The associated price target for the stock is $294. According to the firm, these new products should boost Apple’s ability to meet its second-quarter fiscal year 2025 revenue growth forecast.

“The channel fill of the newly announced products should support AAPL’s ability to achieve its F2Q25 revenue growth outlook of low-to-mid-single digits despite the lower-than-expected starting pricing for the MacBook Air.”

In particular, the MacBook Air is expected to benefit from the widespread PC refresh cycle. Key factors in driving the sales for this device are Apple’s pricing strategy, which sets the new model at a $100 lower price than the previous launch price, support of Apple Intelligence features, the M4 chip, and enhanced integration with the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) ecosystem.

Overall AAPL ranks 5th on our list of the AI stocks Wall Street is betting on. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AAPL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

 

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.