Apple has struggled for over a year to roll out a more advanced version of its Siri personal assistant, and fears about even further delays are weighing on its stock.
The stock ended Thursday down 5%, leading to a loss of $202 billion in market capitalization on the day, according to Dow Jones Market Data. It was the second-largest one-day decline for Apple ever, the data showed, behind only a $311 billion wipeout seen on April 3, 2025 in the face of tariff fears.
The stock selloff followed a Bloomberg News report that said the tech giant could postpone the rollout of long-awaited capabilities for Siri after running into issues during testing in recent weeks. Apple was reportedly planning to include new features for its virtual assistant in the upcoming iOS 26.4 operating system update in March but is now looking to release them incrementally, according to Bloomberg. That could mean users have to wait for some updates in iOS 26.5, which is expected in May, and even more in the iOS 27 update in September.
One issue reportedly plaguing the Siri update is its tendency to tap back into its integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT to respond to inquiries rather than relying on Apple’s artificial-intelligence systems. Apple also has an agreement to use Google’s Gemini AI models to power its AI features.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MarketWatch.
The iPhone maker’s success in releasing new Apple Intelligence features and the improved Siri this year are crucial for the company’s stock, Bernstein analyst Mark Newman said in a note earlier this week.
The revamped Siri, which was teased at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, was once expected to be shipped to users by early 2025. However, that was delayed to sometime this year.
And persistent Siri woes aren’t the only issue facing the company. Apple is one of several tech players navigating rising prices in the memory and storage markets due to an AI-driven supply-and-demand imbalance. Investors have been worried about what that means for Apple, and Newman estimated that prices for the new iPhone’s components could be 15% higher.
Memory and storage makers such as Micron, Seagate Technology and Western Digital have seen a boom in demand from the AI data-center buildout, as their products are important for supporting larger, more complex AI models.
Despite the supply constraints and pricing challenges, however, Newman said “Apple is so far managing better than competition.” While the higher cost of memory could weigh on iPhone gross margins, he sees the impact on Apple’s earnings per share being “relatively muted.”
To Newman, Apple’s execution on AI this year will be the catalyst for its stock, which is down about 3% so far this year.
Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani said in a Tuesday note that Apple’s delay reflects user privacy is “paramount, with Apple prioritizing data protection along with seamless integration before launching the upgrades.”