AI Daily: Analyst sees Apple, Alibaba partnership as growth catalyst

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

APPLE AI: The biggest missing piece in Apple’s (AAPL) AI launch has been its China strategy, which has been in a holding pattern until a Chinese tech partner is officially approved by Beijing and set to launch, Wedbush tells investors in a research note. It appears the day has finally come with Alibaba (BABA) emerging as the clear tech partner and “winner” for Apple Intelligence in the key China region that should be a launching pad for iPhone positive growth to return to the story for Apple starting in the June quarter, the firm says. While there are still some small issues to be resolved, after traveling extensively throughout Asia and speaking to many in the supply chain the last few weeks, Wedbush believes there is growing confidence inside and outside China this AI launch will be in the June quarter for Apple. 

This Alibaba partnership is key to the long-awaited growth catalyst in this region with our estimates that over 100 million of the roughly 200 million iPhones in China are in the window of an upgrade opportunity, it adds. The firm continues to view this first launch of Apple Intelligence as just the beginning of a broader AI strategy for Apple as it estimates roughly 25% of the world’s population will eventually access AI through an Apple device over the next few years. Wedbush has an Outperform rating on Apple with a price target of $325. 

NVIDIA CHIPS: Servers used in a fraud case Singapore announced last week were supplied by U.S. firms and may have contained Nvidia (NVDA) advanced chips, Bing Hong Lok of Reuters reports. Three men were charged with fraud last week in Singapore and domestic media linked the case to the transfer for Nvidia AI chips to DeepSeek. 

MANUFACTURING TESTS: Nvidia and Broadcom (AVGO) are running 18A manufacturing tests with Intel (INTC), and AMD (AMD) is also evaluating whether Intel’s 18A process is suitable for its needs, Reuters’ Max A. Cherney and Fanny Potkin report. According to two sources familiar with the matter, the tests indicate the companies are moving closer to determining whether they will commit hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of manufacturing contracts to Intel. 

AI AGENTS: ServiceNow (NOW) announced the introduction of AI agents for the telecom industry. The AI agents were built with Nvidia AI Enterprise software and the AI platform, Nvidia DGX Cloud. The agents are designed to drive productivity across the entire service lifecycle. The first use cases will put AI agents to work for communications service providers to autonomously solve some of the most common, labor-intensive workflows in customer service and network operations.

GENERATIVE AI BENEFITS: Monness Crespi upgraded Oracle (ORCL) to Neutral from Sell without a price target ahead of the fiscal Q3 report next week. Oracle “represents a high-quality company” with the opportunity to participate in a cloud transformation and benefit from the generative artificial intelligence trend, the analyst tells investors in a research note. However, the firm believes the stock’s valuation “is stretched,” Oracle’s capex spending is unsustainable, its competition is fierce, and the macro environment is “fragile.”