Apple’s AI Glasses & Deal Silence: Strategic Masterstroke or Red Flag for Investors?

Cook plays chess while rivals play checkers—but is Apple's AI radio silence a power move or paralysis?

The elephant not in the room

No specs. No partnerships. No roadmap. Just that iconic fruit logo glowing ominously in the dark. Either Tim Cook's holding cards too close, or the house of Jobs is scrambling behind the scenes.

Wall Street's patience wears thin

Analysts twitch as Meta and Google flash AI prototypes like peacocks. Meanwhile, Apple's war chest grows moss—$202B in cash reserves gathering dust while startups eat their AR lunch. 'Prudent R&D' or corporate lethargy? The options market bets on the latter.

The cynical take

Maybe this is genius—let rivals burn cash on vaporware, then swoop in with the finished product. Or maybe it's another AirPower debacle, where 'waiting for perfection' becomes code for 'engineers stuck in purgatory.' Either way, hedge funds are pricing in disappointment—just in case.

Image source: Getty Images.

Playing it close to the vest in Cupertino

analyst Atif Malik gave Apple CEO Tim Cook a great opportunity to comment on the company's AI glasses strategy during Apple's fiscal 2025 third-quarter earnings call on July 31. He first noted the momentum thatandare enjoying with their AI glasses. Malik then asked Cook if Apple was considering using the technology from its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset in other devices.

Did Cook hit the ball out of the park with his response? For many investors, it was more like a swing and a miss. He first praised the latest release of visionOS, the operating system for Vision Pro. All Cook WOULD say about the future of Vision Pro, though, is that the company is still "very focused on it." He added, "I don't want to get into the roadmap on it, but this is an area that we really believe in."

Malik was also the only analyst on the call to bring up potential AI-related acquisitions. Addressing his question to Apple CFO Kevan Parekh, he asked, "Do you feel like you need to accelerate your AI roadmap or just keep the organic focus?"

Cook jumped in to reply instead of Parekh. He noted that Apple had acquired seven companies in 2025 already, although not all of them were related to AI. Anyone hoping for a hint that Apple was on the verge of a significant AI deal, however, was probably disappointed.

To be fair, Cook did state: "We're very open to M&A [mergers and acquisitions] that accelerates our roadmap. We are not stuck on a certain size company, although the ones that we have acquired thus far this year are small in nature." But he quickly added that management didn't "have anything to share specifically today."

What should investors make of Apple's AI silence?

Is Apple really behind several other technology giants in the AI race? I think the answer is clearly "yes." The generative AI features in Apple Intelligence weren't as impressive as many investors expected. The delays in launching an update for Siri have also been embarrassing for the company.

However, I wouldn't say that Apple's silence on its development plans for AI glasses or the possibility of AI-related acquisitions is a warning sign. The company has historically said very little about products in development until they're nearly ready to roll out. And staying quiet on potential business development deals is prudent, especially if there's a possibility that another big player could enter the picture.

On the other hand, I wouldn't necessarily call Apple's approach a brilliant strategy. In particular, it wouldn't hurt to at least acknowledge that developing new AI devices, such as glasses, was on the product roadmap.

Cook and his team are almost certainly aware of what other tech CEOs are saying. For example, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has unabashedly proclaimed that glasses are "the ideal form factor for AI." Sundar Pichai, who is CEO of both Google and its parent,, said in his company's latest quarterly update that Google is "super excited about our investment in glasses" and referred to the devices as "an exciting new emerging category."

If Cook made similar comments, it wouldn't harm Apple's development plans. However, I suspect it would calm the nerves of some jittery investors.

Three predictions about Apple's AI future

What will Apple do regarding AI glasses and deals? I have three predictions.

First, the company will, as rumored, develop AI glasses. The first version of those glasses will be comparable to the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, in my view. But I expect Apple to integrate the AI glasses with iPhone along the lines of what it has done with Apple Watch. That would be a smart strategy because it could boost iPhone sales.

Second, I don't look for Apple to make a huge AI acquisition. Just because Cook said that Apple isn't "stuck on a certain size company" doesn't mean he's willing to spend too much. The most Apple has ever spent on a deal was $3 billion for the purchase of Beats. I predict that the company won't acquire Perplexity, for example, which was recently valued at around $18 billion and would likely cost a lot more for Apple to buy.

My third prediction is the one I'm most confident about: Apple won't be an AI underdog forever. The company's fortunes hinge too much on the technology.