Apple $AAPL ( ▼ 0.3% ) keeps drifting further from the rest of the tech giants, and the reason is simple. The company is still struggling to produce a meaningful AI strategy while everyone around it is sprinting ahead. BATMMAAN refers to the Big Tech group of Meta $META ( ▲ 0.32% ) , Apple $AAPL ( ▼ 0.3% ) , Tesla $TSLA ( ▼ 0.2% ) , Microsoft $MSFT ( ▼ 0.05% ) , Amazon $AMZN ( ▲ 0.87% ) , Alphabet $GOOGL ( ▲ 0.72% ) , Nvidia $NVDA ( ▲ 3.74% ) , and Broadcom $AVGO ( ▲ 1.98% ).
The gap became impossible to ignore this year. Google’s AI models are improving quickly, ChatGPT is approaching nine hundred million weekly users, and Nvidia briefly topped historic valuation levels on the strength of its Blackwell and Hopper chips. Apple, meanwhile, delivered muted updates to Apple Intelligence, a rollout that disappointed anyone hoping the company would finally show its AI hand.
That weakness is now visible in how the stock trades. Apple is becoming the market’s anti-AI play, with its correlation to the rest of BATMMAAN dropping sharply. When ChatGPT debuted in late 2022, Apple moved almost in sync with the group. Today its correlation with the most AI-sensitive names, particularly Microsoft, Nvidia, and Broadcom, has nearly vanished. Apple and Microsoft once traded almost identically. Now they barely move together at all.
There is one silver lining. When AI stocks sell off, Apple tends to hold up. During a recent tech slide that hit Nvidia, Broadcom, and Tesla, Apple barely budged. But on days when AI enthusiasm kicks in, Apple sits on the sidelines.
The bigger revelation is that Apple has quietly become the odd one out in BATMMAAN. Tesla used to hold that title, but Apple is now the least correlated stock in the entire group. It is drifting so far from its peers that it no longer trades like a typical Big Tech name.
There may be a reset coming. Apple recently retired its AI chief, a move that suggests leadership knows it needs a new direction. Whether that leads to a real AI strategy or simply another delay remains an open question.