Dan Ives, a well-known strategist at the US investment bank Wedbush, said a few days ago that thanks to the “supercycle” of iPhone 16 products driven by artificial intelligence,$Apple (AAPL.US)$Next year's market capitalization will exceed $4 trillion.

He previously raised Apple's target share price to an all-time high of $275, which means there is a potential upside of nearly 45% from the current level. In fact, over the past month, Apple's stock price has climbed about 10%.

Focus on WWDC

According to Ives, Apple's upcoming Global Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10 is “the most important event in a decade,” and the company is preparing to launch a series of artificial intelligence products.

“In our view, bringing artificial intelligence to its critical developer community and laying the foundation for bringing generative AI to consumers starts with Apple.” He added that he also expects Apple to announce a partnership with OpenAI.

According to information, WWDC will be unveiled on June 10, local time, and operating systems such as iPadOS 18, iOS 18, macOS 15, and watchOS 11 will be launched. Among them, iOS 18 has received the most attention from the outside world, because according to previous news, iOS 18 will integrate generative AI functions.

Ives said, “We also believe that Apple will lay the foundation for an artificial intelligence app store, as developers will develop consumer apps on the artificial intelligence stack presented at Apple's Global Developers Conference and will bring additional service growth over the next few years.”

The iPhone 16 is the trump card

Ives said all of these features could be integrated into the upcoming iPhone 16, which will be released in September, which could trigger a “revival of growth” as more people upgrade their iPhones. He anticipates that the iPhone upgrade cycle may exceed 270 million units.

Research conducted by the Ives team last week showed that Apple's sales in April were about 2% higher than market expectations, which also encouraged him.

“This reinforces our deep-seated view that for Apple iPhone production, we'll see the much-anticipated iPhone 16 upgrade cycle begin in September. We think the current Wall Street data is somewhat conservative for FY25, which is a good start to the upcoming iPhone cycle.”

In fact, Ives is far more than the only person who is optimistic about Apple. Steve Eisman (Steve Eisman), the prototype of the movie “The Big Short,” is also recently calling attention to another artificial intelligence (AI) winner — Apple.

He believes that in the long run, Apple will become a key center for artificial intelligence-led software, bringing huge room for growth to its products.

“I know very well that when all these apps come out, I need a new phone, a new iPad, and a new laptop. So when these apps come out, the biggest beneficiary is probably Apple.” he said.

Editor/Jeffrey