As the hype of AI bubbles sweeps across the globe, funds are quietly flowing back to Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) as a "safe haven".

The widespread sell-off of technology stocks sweeping through global stock markets in a new round has severely impacted the hottest AI technology stocks in the global AI investment frenzy, from NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) to Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR.US). However, a traditional old-school tech giant in the technology sector has managed to maintain its market value and stock price without any damage and even achieved a slight expansion against the tide. This tech giant is Apple Inc. (AAPL.US). On Thursday, while the Nasdaq 100 index fell by 1.9%, this tech behemoth, which owns the world's most popular consumer electronics product line such as iPhone and iPad, only dropped by 0.14%, and even briefly rose by over 1% during trading. As of Thursday's US stock market closing, Apple Inc.'s market value is around $4 trillion, second only to the "AI chip overlord" NVIDIA Corporation, whose market value recently exceeded $5 trillion. On Tuesday, when the Nasdaq 100 index fell by over 2%, a similar scene occurred: Apple Inc.'s stock price even managed to close up on Tuesday, while the broader Nasdaq 100 index, covering a wider range of tech stocks, fell by 2.1%. In the past month, Apple Inc.'s stock price has risen by over 5%, while the Nasdaq 100 index has seen an increase of less than 1%. This outperformance of the market indicates that Apple Inc.'s stock price has returned to its "safe-haven nature in times of severe volatility". In the past, during market turmoil, Apple Inc.'s incredibly strong cash generation ability and rock-solid balance sheet have allowed it to remain relatively unscathed. For most of this year, due to the global investors chasing the investment frenzy around artificial intelligence, this tech behemoth stock has been lagging behind the US stock market and leaders in the AI computing industry chain such as NVIDIA Corporation and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR. This week, the market has been completely disrupted by the "AI bubble narrative". "We see that the market is starting to fear the AI bubble, and investor enthusiasm is waning for those stocks benefiting more speculatively from AI, which have become overvalued, becoming victims of their own success. In an environment of declining risk appetite, Apple Inc.'s immense cash flow, profit stability and predictability are the core traits that investors are turning to," said Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Strategist at Cresset Wealth Advisors. The Nasdaq 100 index has shown a 1% daily drop for the third time in the past six trading days, and the market is once again concerned about the wave of increased borrowing by tech companies to finance the construction of AI data centers and the profits associated with AI, which are still inaccessible. There is increasing concern that this large-scale high-leverage financing will drive the AI bubble to a complete collapse, similar to the long-term bear market downturn following the bursting of the 2000 Internet bubble. However, according to Wall Street analysts, even if there is an AI bubble, it is not a cause for alarm. The UBS Group AG analyst team stated that tech giants closely related to AI, which have an increasingly significant weight in the US stock market, are still in the early stages of a potential bubble - not even formed, far from reaching the dangerous peak of the "2000 Internet bubble burst". This is mainly because market valuations have not reached extreme bubble levels, tech investments as a percentage of GDP are controllable, and there have been no signs of extreme mergers and acquisitions similar to those seen during the dot-com bubble period. Analyst teams from Societe Generale also stated that one of the core conditions for the "AI bubble" leading the ultimate tech stock bull market is when the US Federal Reserve restarts the rate hike process, which currently seems unlikely. By Thursday's US stock market closing, NVIDIA Corporation's stock price fell by nearly 4%, and Palantir's stock price fell by over 6%. One of NVIDIA Corporation's competitors in the AI chip field, AMD (AMD.US), saw its stock price drop by over 7% after announcing earnings after the US stock market on Wednesday. Apple Inc.'s slight recovery in stock price and market value closely followed the positive performance outlook provided last week, which to some extent overshadowed the weak trend in demand in the Chinese market shown in the financial reports. The company even achieved a net profit of around $27.5 billion on revenue of as high as $102.5 billion last quarter, continuing to support its immensely large cash reserves. However, looking back over the year, the AI investment frenzy that has pervaded globally is almost unrelated to Apple Inc. The company's stock price has only risen by 8.4% so far this year, less than half of the nearly 20% increase in the Nasdaq 100 index. Its mediocre performance earlier this year was mainly due to investors' doubts about whether it could deliver results on its iPhone smartphones integrating AI on the edge. However, this "shortcoming" has now become an advantage to some extent - mainly because Apple Inc. did not burn money on AI as massively as other large tech companies such as Microsoft Corporation, Alphabet Inc. Class C, and Meta did. As consumers directly access this revolutionary generative AI technology through Apple Inc.'s intelligent hardware within its ecosystem, AI inference at the edge may become a new revenue stream for Apple Inc., making this old-school tech giant still one of the core beneficiaries of the AI wave. A recent research report from Bernstein, a well-known Wall Street investment firm, predicts that the immensely large AI inference systems expected by 2030 will bring a trillion-dollar "super blue ocean", which should bring long-term benefits to large tech companies focused on IT hardware and consumer electronics, such as Apple Inc., the consumer electronics giant. Earlier this week, there were reports that Apple Inc. was planning to pay around $1 billion annually to acquire a large artificial intelligence model developed by Alphabet's Alphabet Inc. Class C to help facilitate a milestone upgrade to its voice assistant Siri. Ablin from Cresset Wealth Advisors stated, "This is definitely a good thing because it helps Apple Inc. further participate in the current AI wave, and $1 billion is far lower than the massive funds that any other tech company is currently spending on AI." According to the latest data from third-party statistical agencies, the four major US tech giants under Alphabet, Alphabet Inc. Class C, Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com, Inc., and Microsoft Corporation collectively invested over $110 billion in AI-related capital expenditures last quarter, and analysts widely expect their combined capital expenditures to increase by 34% over the next 12 months to reach an unprecedented nearly $500 billion. Physical AI - Apple Inc.'s next super revenue driver? On the other hand, Wall Street is betting that "physical AI" could be the next super growth engine for Apple Inc. The Morgan Stanley analyst team wrote that Apple Inc. is very likely to grow into a heavyweight market participant in the Siasun Robot & Automation and the broader "physical AI" field, which they believe is another immensely large market comparable in size to the generative AI market where ChatGPT is located. According to the insights of NVIDIA Corporation CEO Jensen Huang, "physical AI" emphasizes enabling Siasun Robot & Automation/Autonomous Operating Systems to perceive, reason and act in the real world. Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring stated, "As AI and Siasun Robot & Automation change the physical world, Apple Inc. can leverage its vertical integration capabilities and a base of over 2.3 billion terminal devices, as well as the underrecognized proprietary Siasun Robot & Automation technology of Apple Inc., to become a leading player in the field of embodied intelligence." The firm estimates that by 2040, the Apple Robotics series of products Apple Inc. is planning in the Siasun Robot & Automation field could bring in a huge revenue opportunity of around $130 billion, equivalent to around 30% of Apple Inc.'s current revenue base, and may account for at least 10% and up to 25% of its market value trajectory. In an ultimate optimistic scenario for the stock, the firm added, "We estimate that by 2040, Apple Inc.'s market share in the Siasun Robot & Automation field could reach as high as 22%, similar to the overall share of the global smartphone market today held by iPhone. At that time, Apple Inc.'s revenue from the Siasun Robot & Automation business line could reach nearly $300 billion, equivalent to a value of around $65 per share today."