If you want to know what the world’s investment gurus think about big tech and AI, look no further than Gene Munster. A renowned equity research analyst known for his deep, insightful coverage of technology companies, Gene Munster is best known for his years at Piper Jaffray, where his research on Apple made him one of Wall Street’s most closely watched tech analysts, before going on to co-found Deepwater Asset Management.
During his 21-year tenure at Piper Jaffray, Gene received acknowledgements including Best on the Street from The Wall Street Journal, Top Stock Picker from Forbes, ranking No. 1 of 4,186 analysts in 2016 according to TipRanks, and was widely recognized for his work on Apple.
Today, his views on NVIDIA, SpaceX, and other big tech stocks, besides Apple, are widely followed by investors globally. Munster now shares much of this commentary through social media and Deepwater’s regular market notes under the ‘Pressure Points’ section and his frequent television appearances, where he offers early, often bold predictions on where the biggest tech names are headed next.
Here’s a look at his views on some of the biggest names in the AI and technology space.
Can OpenAI Really Take On Apple?
Given the deep research Gene has done on Apple, his views on the AAPL stock carry real weight, and right now he’s going against the grain. Munster keeps sharing his views on Apple on his X handle.
Despite Jefferies downgrading Apple to underperform on reports that the all-glass iPhone has been cancelled due to low yield, Gene Munster remains upbeat on the stock. “I disagree and think the next year AAPL will outperform the rest of Mag 7,” wrote Gene on X.
Gene’s overall read on Apple’s second-quarter results was bullish, and he pushed back on the early headlines suggesting a miss. He does not believe Apple missed the iPhone number in Q2. Apple’s stock price did not move up as significantly as Gene expected.
He attributes this to investor concern that Apple is now at the peak of an iPhone super cycle, where growth jumped from a flat 1.5% average to roughly 15 to 20% over the past five quarters, fuelled by record upgraders. His lingering question, what happens once this cycle cools.
John Ternus replaced Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO on September 1, 2026. Munster, an ardent Apple fan, couldn’t pass up the chance to talk about Cook on X. “I’ve been dreading the final day of Tim Cook’s CEO tenure. He took Jobs’s greatest product, Apple itself, and shepherded it into a new era. But what I most admire about Cook is that despite all of the fortune and fame of becoming the world’s most powerful CEO, he kept his North Star and always cared deeply about people.”
John Ternus’s new role as Apple CEO also drew a welcome from Munster, along with a pointed piece of advice, “Your first priority: reverse the brain drain.” The next day, he followed up with another suggestion: “A humble suggestion to Ternus on his first day; make a splashy AI hire by year-end. Yes, it may cost $50m a year but the payoff would be immediate on multiple levels. 1. recruiting AI talent 2. injecting energy into product development 3. AAPL would go up,” Gene wrote.
Gene also shared his views on Apple versus OpenAI, once again urging Ternus to reverse the brain drain. He wrote, “OpenAI says roughly 400 Apple employees have moved from Apple to OpenAI. AI is moving much faster than the smartphone era did. The biggest long-term risk for Apple is losing control of the interface between consumers and AI.”
He is, however, not convinced OpenAI can pull off a takeover, adding, “Given Apple can lean on Google’s models, it’s unlikely that OpenAI can create an AI-powered consumer device family that compels consumers to switch because it’s 10x better than Apple.
It’s easy for OpenAI to design one or two consumer devices. The difficult part is designing, manufacturing, and distributing a family of devices and services (iPhone, Mac, Watch, AirPods, Apple TV) at a price point that consumers can afford.
Remember, OpenAI has to come out with an offer so powerful that Apple users would want to shift away from their current investment in Apple devices. That’s an enormously high hurdle.”
The stock price of Apple (AAPL), the second most valuable company after NVIDIA, with a market cap of $4.75 trillion, trades around $325, below its 52-week high of $344.57. AAPL is up over 20% YTD and nearly 36% in the last year.
Get Ready for ‘AI Tsunami’ Says Munster on NVIDIA
Munster is calling investors to “Get ready for an AI tsunami”. This comes after NVIDIA’s revised estimate suggested a significantly larger AI market than he had anticipated earlier.
NVIDIA’s CY27 revenue guide suggests the AI brain will be about 40% bigger next year than expected just 24 hours earlier, pointing to a greater distribution than previously anticipated by him. Munster expressed optimism regarding NVIDIA’s recent earnings announcement, predicting substantial revenue growth for the upcoming year. Gene’s core message is that the margin guide is a minor blip, not a red flag.
NVIDIA is trading down slightly purely because the gross margin guide of 74% for October came in below the Street’s 75% estimate. But he’s clear that this doesn’t change his bigger-picture view, the AI growth story is intact, and he wants to hear more detail on the earnings call before drawing further conclusions.
The stock price of NVIDIA (NVDA), the most valuable company ahead of Apple, with a market cap of $5.24 trillion, trades around $217, near its 52-week high of $236. NVDA is up over 16% YTD and nearly 27% in the last year.
Is xAI Quietly Closing In on OpenAI and Anthropic?
Munster has high hopes from Anthropic too. “Anthropic’s business continues to be on fire, and for the first time meaningfully moving the growth needle for NVIDIA.” But, Gene’s take is that xAI is closing in fast, and he expects it to overtake both OpenAI and Anthropic within months.
The trigger is Grok 4.6, which jumped from 8th to 4th on the Artificial Analysis leaderboard, a sharp move that Gene reads as a signal of accelerating momentum rather than a one-off.
He’s betting the climb continues. Gene expects Grok to reach the top of the leaderboard by January, driven by two upcoming releases. Grok 4.7, due in about a month, will incorporate Cursor data for the first time.
Grok 5.0, expected around December, will draw on the full breadth of SpaceX’s engineering data, a resource Gene believes gives xAI a distinct edge. His overall framing is: this next model “is going to be a monster,” and OpenAI and Anthropic should be paying attention.
Bottom Line
Across Apple, NVIDIA, Anthropic and xAI, Munster’s message is consistent, near-term noise should not distract from the bigger structural story.
He is unfazed by Apple’s downgrade and iPhone super cycle worries, sees NVIDIA’s margin dip as a minor blip against a much larger AI opportunity, and is watching xAI closely as it climbs the leaderboard faster than expected.
Investors following his commentary will likely be watching Ternus’s first AI hire, NVIDIA’s earnings call detail, and Grok’s next two releases as the key signposts ahead.
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