LightShed Analysts Drop Bombshell: Apple Should Oust Tim Cook as CEO

Wall Street's tech whisperers just threw a Molotov cocktail at Apple's C-suite.

LightShed Partners—the research firm that called the streaming wars years early—is now gunning for Tim Cook's throne. Their verdict? The iPhone empire needs fresh blood at the top.

The Cook Conundrum

Apple's stock might be cruising, but innovation's stuck in neutral. While Cook masterminded the services cash machine, critics say he's let hardware languish—no category-defining hits since the Watch.

Silicon Valley's Open Secret

Every analyst knows it: Apple's sitting on $200B+ in cash but still can't buy its way into the AI race. Meanwhile, Meta and Google eat their AR lunch.

One hedge fund manager quipped: 'Cook runs Apple like a bond portfolio—all yield, no vision.' Ouch.

Will shareholders demand a visionary over a supply-chain wizard? The trillion-dollar question just got spicy.

AI failures damage Apple’s market position

Apple’s slow adoption of generative AI has not escaped investors’ notice or the wider tech ecosystem. Unlike Microsoft and Google, which have moved aggressively to push AI-based tools and alliances, Apple has made only slight past forays. But that silence is starting to come at a cost for the company.

In 2025, Apple stock fell 16%, versus increases of 25% in shares of AI-forward companies including Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. And Apple’s stock market performance is a reflection of investors’ jitters that the company is failing to keep up in a sector that is already revolutionizing industries from software to hardware and beyond.

Start-ups are wading in too, releasing hardware and software that is directly competitive with Apple’s once unassailable ecosystem. Consumers are also increasingly drawn to AI-enabled devices, which learn, predict, and adjust. At this rate, if Apple doesn’t have a good comeback ready soon, it’s going to see its market share and cultural influence start to wane.

Apple revealed a handful of features called “Apple Intelligence” at its Worldwide Developers Conference in 2024. Still, analysts say the update was more evolutionary than revolutionary regarding AI features, which could not be said about what rivals offered.

Cook’s legacy faces a new AI reality

The performance of Tim Cook, as CEO, is nothing less than historic. Under Mr. Cook’s watch since 2011, Apple’s stock has risen more than 1,400 percent, far outpacing the broader S&P 500, which has climbed roughly 430 percent over the same period. During his tenure, Apple was the first company to reach a $3 trillion market capitalization and added new devices and services to its product lineup.

Cook has also steered Apple through multiple international crises, including COVID-19 and global supply chain problems. He was able to keep the ship running and growing, which made him a trusted figure on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.

But for some analysts, that legacy alone doesn’t justify keeping things as they are. Piecyk and Galone acknowledged that Tim Cook was the right CEO when he took over and credited him for doing an exceptional job. However, they argued that the current era demands new leadership—someone who can drive the bold product innovation that originally made Apple a global leader. They noted that with Jeff Williams stepping down, the moment calls for more disruptive change, not less.

The push for Cook to leave hasn’t reached the point where it’s a common demand of investors or among directors, and there’s no sign the CEO intends to abandon the ship himself. However, the note from LightShed is one of an increasing number chastising Apple’s direction in the era of accelerated progress in the field of AI.

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