Apple Inc. (Apple (AAPL)) latest AI announcements sparked a fresh debate on Wall Street, with analysts divided over whether the company's Siri overhaul positions it for the next phase of artificial intelligence adoption or underscores its growing reliance on partners such as Alphabet Inc. (Alphabet (GOOGL)) and NVIDIA Corporation (NVIDIA (NVDA)) to remain competitive in the AI race.

Apple Faces Pressure After WWDC

CNBC's MacKenzie Sigalos said on Wednesday that Apple underperformed the Nasdaq and landed at the bottom of the Magnificent Seven after outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook's WWDC keynote.

She said Apple demonstrated functional generative AI on devices via Siri. Still, the feature will arrive in beta later this year with a limited rollout and will not yet be available in key markets such as Europe and China.

Sigalos said Wall Street did not get the blockbuster agentic Siri demo it wanted, including a version that could drive a new iPhone upgrade cycle or create a new revenue stream inside Apple's services business.

She said Apple has not launched a separate Apple AI subscription, though it is using iCloud Plus to test a paywall for heavier AI usage.

Google Cloud, Margins, and Alphabet Draw Attention

Sigalos said investors are focused on Apple's nearly 50% gross margin and are asking what happens if more advanced Siri and image-generation workflows increasingly run through Google Cloud systems and NVIDIA chips.

She said inference is cheaper than training, but still creates a different cost structure than Apple's original on-device and private-cloud AI pitch.

Sigalos said Alphabet emerged as a WWDC winner because Apple is relying on Google Cloud and Google's models after acknowledging that its private cloud cannot support heavier AI workloads.

She said Apple also did not appear to embrace the model-agnostic approach many analysts expected.

Apple unveiled its biggest Siri AI upgrade in years at WWDC, but the more consequential announcement came behind the scenes: the company's most advanced AI model will run on NVIDIA chips through Google Cloud rather than on Apple's own silicon.

JPMorgan Sees Long-Term Siri Upside

JPMorgan senior analyst Samik Chatterjee said Apple's Siri overhaul remains a long-term game changer, even though the stock fell after the WWDC reveal.

He said the Siri revamp came broadly in line with expectations and still represents an important software shift for Apple.

Chatterjee said Siri can become a more central layer across Apple's ecosystem by using context from standard apps, coordinating with Apple's proprietary models, and connecting to next-generation systems such as Gemini.

JPMorgan maintained an Overweight rating on Apple with a $325 price forecast, with Chatterjee saying Apple's software investments and global device base can support the company's long-term growth outlook.

Analysts Debate Apple's AI Strategy

Gabelli Funds' John Belton said Apple needs to show whether its revamped Siri is becoming a true platform or remains just a feature.

He said Apple's capital-light approach has worked so far because the company can use its massive device distribution to bring AI technology to billions of users. Still, he added that Apple needs to catch up in the age of agentic AI.

Bernstein's Mark Newman said Apple's partnership approach is the right strategy because it gives the company access to advanced models such as Google's while avoiding the massive capital spending of hyperscalers. He said Apple spends about $14 billion a year on capital expenditures, far below the $200 billion being spent by some competitors.

Intelligent Alpha's Doug Clinton said investors do not expect Apple to "blow us away with Siri," given its past struggles. Still, they remain optimistic that Siri can become competitive with OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini.

He said a more useful Siri could drive incremental device sales and services revenue, and that Apple does not need a perfect Siri as long as it becomes good enough to enter consumers' regular usage.

Apple Price Action

AAPL Price Action: Apple shares were down 0.12% at $290.20 during premarket trading on Wednesday, according to market data. The stock fell 3.64% in the previous session.