Apple Investors Lobbying for Big Acquisition Amid AI Troubles

Apple is reportedly facing pressure to make a major acquisition amid its AI troubles.

As Bloomberg News reported Monday (July 14), investors are concerned by a slump in share prices that has wiped out more than $630 billion in Apple’s market value this year and frustrated with the company’s delays in introducing artificial intelligence (AI) features.

To that end, these investors are calling on the tech giant to buck tradition and acquire or hire new AI talent.

“Historically Apple does not do big mergers and acquisitions,” said Citigroup analyst Atif Malik, adding that its last major deal was its $3 billion purchase of Beats in 2014.

Still, “investors would turn more positive if Apple could acquire or invest a meaningful stake in an established AI provider,” he said.

As Bloomberg notes, Apple’s shares have dropped 16% this year, while traders have flocked to rivals like Meta, which is spending heavily on its AI efforts. The report adds that although Apple faces issues such as tariffs and regulatory headaches, disappointment in its AI efforts has become a major pain point for investors.

There are signs, the report continued, that Apple may be changing its tune on big acquisitions, with recent news that the company had discussed purchasing AI startup Perplexity AI, a move that would Apple develop an AI-based search engine.

Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, called buying Perplexity a “no brainer,” and said even if the company paid $30 billion, that figure would be “a drop in the bucket relative to the monetization opportunity Apple can achieve on AI.”

PYMNTS examined Apple’s AI troubles last month following the company’s debut of AI features at its 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

“Apple, long known for excitement and innovation, delivered nothing particularly exciting or innovative during the first day of the WWDC,” that report said.

In terms of an upgrade to the long-standing Siri AI voice assistant, Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said the company needed “more time to meet our high-quality bar.”

This restrained tactic contrasts with rivals like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, which are embracing large language models (LLMs) and enterprise-scale AI solutions “in aggressive and sometimes experimental ways,” PYMNTS added.

“While those companies are deploying AI agents in business software and cloud infrastructure, Apple is offering tightly integrated, narrowly scoped capabilities such as real-time voicemail transcripts, enhanced Spotlight search, call screening and translation,” the report continued.