We recently published a list of Top 10 AI Stocks Dominating the Market Right Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stands against other top AI stocks dominating the market right now.

Attention is slowly shifting from US chip stocks to what analysts consider as the next big AI play: software. Investor enthusiasm has begun waning for semiconductor stocks due to tariff-driven volatility and the emergence of lower cost AI models from China’s DeepSeek. The AI chips transition is now paving the way for the second stage of the innovation cycle where software companies will begin to monetize AI breakthroughs.

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“The second stage of the innovation cycle is when people start utilizing products and that’s when the software companies start getting paid … we’re now starting to see the ascendancy of the software part of the equation.”

-Keith Weiss, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.

Previously, software startups such as Harvey were dismissed by Silicon Valley investors. Investors used to take these software firms lightly, stating them as mere wrappers around OpenAI’s models. However, now the narrative is shifting and these AI wrappers are becoming quite popular today.

“The market’s perception of companies like us… was that they’re GPT wrappers, referencing a derisive term used to suggest the repackaging of OpenAI’s models. If investors “were going to put money into something,” he added, “it needed to be into OpenAI or Anthropic.”

-Harvey, Chief Executive Officer Winston Weinberg

Here is what another investor has to say:

“Just like after the iPhone launched, there were millions of new mobile apps,” said Mignano, an investor in the AI notetaking service Granola, which uses technology from OpenAI and Anthropic. “Now with AI and LLMs, there will be millions of new AI products.”

-Michael Mignano, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners

DeepSeek has also played its due part in leading the shift from chip stocks to software and similar AI plays.

“Investors are looking for the next three-to-five-year stories … those companies that are going to benefit from what Nvidia has already done.”

David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation.

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. On March 6, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities published a note on Wednesday predicting its first foldable iPhone by late 2026, highlighting more details on a foldable iPhone design that he had previously heard about.

The analyst, who focuses on Apple’s supply chain, forecasts that Apple’s foldable iPhone is likely to have a book-style design, a 7.8-inch inner screen, and an “AI-driven” experience. The analyst stated that the iPhone is going to be “top-tier” with a “crease-free inner display” and an expected retail price of over $2000. He further stated how the device could begin mass production in the last quarter of 2026.

“A phone with such a high price point affords Apple a true higher-end luxury offering to balance out the push on lower-priced alternatives like the iPhone 16e.”

-Dipanjan Chatterjee, a Forrester analyst.

Overall, AAPL ranks 4th on our list of top AI stocks dominating the market right now. 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.