[ad_1]
Jim Cramer says the favorable ruling in Alphabet’s landmark antitrust case could unlock billions of dollars of additional revenue for Apple. Club stock Apple jumped more than 3% on Wednesday after a federal judge ruled that Alphabet can continue making payments to preload its Google Search onto iPhones and other Apple devices. However, the late Tuesday decision handed down by Judge Amit Mehta, who has been overseeing the Google Search antitrust trial, prevents Alphabet from paying for contracts with preconditions such as making its Google Search the exclusive search option. On Tuesday evening, during CNBC’s “Mad Money,” Jim described it as “shockingly favorable.” He added, “This is a huge win for Alphabet, but it’s also a big win for Apple.” The reason why this is so good for Apple is two-fold. For starters, Apple can continue to collect this highly profitable revenue stream from Alphabet in exchange for the preloading and placement of Google Search in its Safari browser. Google is estimated to have paid Apple some $20 billion per year as part of that relationship, which benefited Google because Apple was driving tons of traffic to its search engine. With minimal costs associated with generating that revenue for Apple, most of it just flows to the bottom line. The market had been concerned that the judge might bar Google from making any sort of payments in exchange for traffic. But beyond that, the ruling opens the door to Apple being able to work out similar agreements with large language model providers to bring AI services to the Apple ecosystem, particularly Siri. Apple has struggled to develop the AI-enhanced version of Siri that Apple so sorely needs to drive a big upgrade cycle for iPhone sales. Updates over recent months make it clear that they’re likely to leverage a third-party company as the underlying technology provider to accomplish that, if not outright buy one of them. Currently, Apple gives Siri users the option to punt more complex queries to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Now, with the remedy ruling, Apple has the ability to get paid in those future relationships for driving traffic to the AI chatbots in addition to search. That could mean billions more in payments each year to Apple’s crucial Services division, which includes the App Store, iCloud, Apple TV, and others. “With this ruling, the tables can be turned,” Jim said Tuesday night. “That bot company will have to pay Apple because it’s legal. What a turn of events. Maybe it’s another $20 billion headed Apple’s way. Maybe [it’s] more,” he added. Wall Street analysts agree with Jim that this is a great outcome for Apple. Evercore ISI, in particular, noted that the ruling will require Google to renegotiate its deals annually rather than on a multiyear basis, which could be beneficial for Apple. “We think this is a net positive for Apple, which not only will maintain receipt of its ~$15-20B payment from Google but will also allow Apple to renew the deal each year.” The Evercore analysts, who reiterated a buy-equivalent rating on the stock, added, “This gives Apple more leverage in search engine negotiations and paves the way for an eventual AI-enabled search engine becoming the default on Safari, whether that be with Gemini or another model builder.” Morgan Stanley analysts called the outcome a “near best-case scenario.” They added, “Effectively, Apple needs to offer a bit more flexibility in distributing search to users, but the remedies are even more watered down than we expected.” AAPL YTD mountain Apple (AAPL) year-to-date performance Mehta’s decision is a second major positive for Apple in less than a month. Late in the day on Aug. 6, Apple CEO Tim Cook was able to ease tensions with President Donald Trump . Cook announced, at a White House event, an additional $100 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing. Over the past 30 days, the stock has jumped more than 16.5%. Despite the nice run of good news, Apple shares were still down over 5% year-to-date, compared to the S & P 500 ‘s more than 9.5% advance. Apple had a rough start to 2025 as investors worried about the Google case, the company’s lackluster generative artificial intelligence rollout, as well as increasingly heated smartphone competition in China and tariff headwinds. With Google and some of the tariff concerns behind us, Apple needs a strong showing at its Sept. 9 product event, when the iPhone 17 is expected to be unveiled. Just last week , we were talking about reports of a new, thinner design and Apple’s first in-house modem chip. In a note to clients, Goldman Sachs was bullish on Apple’s lineup of expected iPhone 17s — and, as a result, forecasted an upside to iPhone revenue. Investors are still going to want to hear about Apple’s plans for AI. But the ruling in the Google case ensures that Apple has a full toolbox to build a solution that benefits both iPhone users and its stock price. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AAPL, META. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
[ad_2]
Source link
