Ives: How Apple can avoid a “Blackberry Moment” in AI

While Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives is pleased with Apple CEO Tim Cook’s latest efforts to appease the Trump administration, he cautioned that the iPhone maker could face a “Blackberry Moment” thanks to its failures with AI.

“While the AI Revolution led by Big Tech is racing ahead like an F1 track in Monza focused on monetizing the biggest tech trend in the last 40 years, Apple is on a park bench drinking lemonade watching this technology innovation change the world,” Ives wrote this morning.

What’s Apple to do? Ives recommends three things — all of which require looking beyond its Cupertino headquarters.

Acquire Perplexity to help with Siri.
Add executives from outside Apple to the leadership team. “The current management team including Cook has Apple on an AI treadmill on 2.5 speed going nowhere,” Ives wrote.
Partner with Google to fully integrate Gemini AI onto the iPhone.

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Rani Molla1h

Tesla is back in the negative this year

After falling more than 6% yesterday in its biggest drop since July, Tesla is once again in negative territory for the year. Elon Musk’s company posted record earnings last month, buoyed by pulled-forward demand tied to the final quarter of US federal EV tax credits, but its margins slipped as steep discounts were used to clear inventory.

Now the stock, which only turned positive for the year in September, is under renewed pressure amid a broader tech and AI sell-off, as investors grow concerned that the Federal Reserve may pause its rate-cutting cycle. Adding to the drag are soft sales in Tesla’s second-largest market, China, and news that longtime bull Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest unloaded roughly $30 million in shares this week.

Rani Molla20h

Meta overhauls Marketplace with AI insights and collaborative shopping

Meta announced Thursday that it’s giving its buy-and-sell platform, Marketplace — arguably the best part of Facebook and the most appealing to young people — a “glow up.” Each day in the US and Canada, one out of four Facebook daily active young adult users go to Marketplace, according to Meta. The overhaul includes the ability to create collections of listings you can share with friends or the public.

The site will also offer AI suggestions on what to ask sellers about your potential purchase. Unfortunately for all involved, the much-hated, easy-to-accidentally-press default message to sellers — “Hi, is this available” — remains unchanged.

Most promising, to us, for comedic purposes: “You can now react and comment directly on Marketplace listings, helping others learn about item quality and discover unique finds.”

Facebook Marketplace Gets a Glow Up

Most promising, to us, for comedic purposes: “You can now react and comment directly on Marketplace listings, helping others learn about item quality and discover unique finds.”

$15B

Rani Molla23h

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s other company, xAI, has raised $15 billion in its latest funding round, CNBC reports. That’s $5 billion more than the company had raised in that same round in September. Its valuation remains at a sky-high $200 billion.

Tesla shareholders recently voted to invest in xAI but, due to a large number of abstentions, the board has yet to approve the proposal.

Rani Molla24h

Microsoft to use OpenAI’s chips to improve its own in-house chips

As part of Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, the company is using OpenAI’s development of custom AI semiconductors to help improve its own in-house chips, which have lagged behind peers, according to an interview with CEO Satya Nadella by podcaster Dwarkesh Patel.

“As they innovate even at the system level, we get access to all of it,” Nadella said. “We first want to instantiate what they build for them, but then we’ll extend it.” Under their updated agreement, Microsoft has access to OpenAI’s models and products — excluding the Jony Ive-designed AI device — through 2032.

Rani Molla11/13/25

Apple to get 15% cut of purchases in Tencent’s WeChat mini games and apps

Apple has made a major inroad into China, the world’s largest smartphone market, by reaching a landmark agreement with Tencent to process payments within WeChat’s mini games and apps, Bloomberg reports.

Under the deal, Apple will take a 15% commission on digital purchases — half its usual 30% App Store cut. The arrangement ends a long-running dispute between the two over WeChat’s in-app payment system, which for years allowed users to bypass Apple’s infrastructure entirely, and gives the iPhone maker a lucrative new revenue stream inside the most dominant app ecosystem in China.

The agreement is expected to require developers to comply with Apple’s software policies and close payment loopholes that previously directed users to external systems.

Tencent posted earnings today that beat analysts revenue and earnings expectations.

Apple and Tencent Agree to 15% Fee on WeChat Mini Game Purchases

The agreement is expected to require developers to comply with Apple’s software policies and close payment loopholes that previously directed users to external systems.

Tencent posted earnings today that beat analysts revenue and earnings expectations.

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