Not even two full trading weeks into 2026 and the good news is already piling up for a slew of big name technology stocks. That brings benefits to investors engaged with the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF (QQQM). With the help of Apple news, Alphabet's market capitalization topped $4 trillion for the first time, making it the fourth U.S. company to accomplish that feat. The other three are Apple, Microsoft, and Nvida — all QQQ/QQQM holdings. Speaking of Microsoft, Goldman ...

Key Takeaways Tech titans AAPL and GOOGL are pairing up on AI. Sentiment around AAPL's AI strategy has largely been mixed so far. GOOGL has widely outperformed relative to AAPL over the last year. If there’s one thing that remains certain for 2026, it’s that the AI frenzy will continue to dominate market headlines and overall commentary. It’s not unsurprising, given some of the lofty forecasts we’ve received, though the fresh year will likely weed out a few of the ‘pretenders’ from the real winners.And the ...

Core Viewpoint - Apple's personalized version of Siri has faced significant delays and challenges, leading to a potential shift in strategy towards utilizing external AI technologies from companies like Anthropic or OpenAI [1][3][12] Group 1: Internal Challenges - The development of the new AI-based Siri has been described as a "mess," prompting a major restructuring of the Siri team under new leadership [3] - Apple's internal AI models, including Apple Foundation Models and AppleOn-Device, have underperformed compared to competitors, leading to a reassessment of their reliance on self-developed technology [8][10] - The initial optimistic timeline for integrating AI into Siri has proven unrealistic, resulting in a delay of the upgrade to 2026 [12][14] Group 2: External Collaboration - Apple is considering leveraging external AI technologies to enhance Siri's capabilities, which contrasts with its historical preference for in-house development [6][16] - The company aims to customize third-party AI models to run on its private cloud servers, ensuring user privacy while improving functionality [3][6] - Collaborating with established AI firms may provide a cost-effective solution to meet consumer expectations for AI integration in smartphones [16] Group 3: Market Implications - The delay in launching the upgraded Siri could negatively impact iPhone sales and stock performance, leading to shareholder lawsuits over perceived misinformation regarding the timeline [14] - As competitors in the Android ecosystem continue to advance their AI capabilities, Apple's delay may result in a noticeable gap in user experience compared to rival products [10][12] - The consumer sentiment towards AI smartphones indicates a demand for AI features, making it crucial for Apple to act swiftly to remain competitive [16]