In short
Earn Your Leisure Podcast Episode Summary
Episode Title
Can Apple Regain Its Throne? The Battle of Trillion-Dollar Tech Giants
Hosts
- Rashad Bilal
- Troy Millings
- Ian Dunlap
Overview In this episode, the hosts delve into the competitive landscape of the tech industry, specifically focusing on Apple's position among other tech giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. They discuss the potential future of Apple and offer insights on investment strategies.
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Key Topics Discussed
- Apple's Current Market Position
- Apple is currently the third-largest company by market capitalization.
- Discussion on the possibility of other companies overtaking Apple, especially if it fails to invest in critical areas like AI.
- The Importance of AI Investment
- Ian Dunlap emphasizes the urgent need for Apple to invest in AI and form partnerships with AI leaders to maintain its market position.
- Without such investments, Apple could fall to fifth place by 2030.
- Top Competitors
- Current top tech companies by market cap:
- Nvidia
- Microsoft
- Apple
- Amazon
- Meta
- Saudi Aramco
- Broadcom
- Taiwan Semi
- Berkshire Hathaway
- Analyzing how companies like Google and Amazon leverage automation and cloud services to improve profit margins.
- Tactical Investment Insights
- Discussion on identifying "dead" stocks versus hidden gems.
- Example companies: Robinhood, Zoom, and Zillow.
- Ian's philosophy on investing: Focus on companies with strong fundamentals rather than on chart performance alone.
- Market Trends
- The hosts discuss shifts in profit margins due to automation in tech.
- Amazon's AWS as a significant revenue generator and its future potential as AI integration increases.
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Key Takeaways
- AI and Automation are Game-Changers: The hosts stress that embracing these technologies is essential for any tech company wishing to stay competitive.
- Long-Term Investment Mindset: Investors should prioritize companies with solid fundamentals over short-term market fluctuations.
- Apple's Leadership Concerns: There's a sentiment among the hosts that Apple’s leadership may be hesitant to invest strategically in areas that could secure its market leadership.
- Investment Opportunities: Look for companies that demonstrate resilience and potential for future growth, rather than just focusing on current stock performance.
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Audience Engagement
- The episode includes an audience question segment where the hosts clarify how to differentiate between a "dead" stock and a potential opportunity.
- They encourage listeners to consider fundamentals over technical chart analyses when investing.
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Conclusion This episode of Earn Your Leisure offers a comprehensive analysis of Apple's current standing in the tech industry and its future challenges. The discussions provide valuable insights for both casual listeners and serious investors looking to navigate the evolving landscape of technology and investment opportunities.
Call to Action Listeners are encouraged to engage with the show by liking, sharing, and taking advantage of special offers like discounts on tickets for Invest Fest.
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Hashtags
- #MarketMondays
- #Apple
- #Nvidia
- #Amazon
- #TechStocks
- #Investing
- #AI
- #StockMarket
- #InvestFest
- #FinancialEducation
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. Learn how podcasting can help your business. Call 844-844-iHeart. Hey, it's Joel. And Matt. From HowToMoney. If your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back. Prices, they're still high. And the economy is all over the place. But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress.
0:35That's right. Each week we break down what's happening with your money, the most important issues to focus on, and the small moves that make a big difference. Kick off the year with confidence. Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?
1:05I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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3:22Is there any company that could overtake Apple in third place or will Apple take back the number one spot over the next few years? Game stop. What's another little meme quorum Joe like? Nicola. I mean. It depends on what time frame we're talking. If we're talking, if Apple does not invest into AI or has a significant partnership in four or five years, it's a great question. I can see a conglomerate like Saudi Aramico taking it, but I think someone in the AI space could definitely take it. In an imperfect world, if they don't make an investment by 2030, I think Apple will be fifth in terms of market cap.
4:15that's why I keep beating this drum about them needing to make a course correction. But where's meta on the list? Meta is number six. Meta is number six. And the people would be talking about market caps for the market cap. Yeah. Total market cap. So right now you want to do the top five market. So top five, I'll give you 10. Yeah, let's do 10. So at 10, we got Berkshire Hathaway at little over 1 trillion. Taiwan semi is nine. Broadcom is eight. saw your ramico is seven meta is six google is five amazon is four apple is three microsoft is two and nvidia is one oh if apple don't get this together google can take that i think number four i mean it's the obvious right amazon is is is trailing it um we know what the only thing that concerns me there is profit margin so how much they can reinvest can they improve to the space that's the only part i'm concerned about google has done a great job of uh with sergey also being at helm and being in the office um go ahead my so like profit margin i'm glad you said that because how does profit margin change over the next two to three years when things become automated for a company that pretty much is making things automated already if they increase automation what does that do for profit margin That's true, but I think they have hard fixed costs that may be hard to be restructured.
5:48I'm not saying that it's impossible, but for a company like Google that has more, I think it's easier to engineer their profitability a lot faster than Amazon. Amazon is the turtle in the race that could win for sure. But in the short term, if Apple does not significantly invest and Google continues to do so, like i pay for that suite just to test it the suite is amazing and you know how i felt about google and then you know they sent you the call and i got a couple of texts and they're like try the suite out phenomenal veil is better than anything and i know everybody that watched the show at hq at apple y 'all know it is no you're not lying it is the suite is phenomenal so i can see if now if they course correct in a year or two and have a partnership with perplexity or a major ai infrastructure company that they will keep that spot or remain higher but if they don't i can see them going to fifth and google taking that spot
6:51matters on a tear and the thing i can say about zuckerberg you can say that he may copy or he may lag but he doesn't lag for long and he's putting capital behind the ai investment to get them from open ai to meta you have apple sitting on enough money to buy syria cash free and clear and you won't buy an ai company why and for everyone who may say this stop saying that i'm talking to people that work in hq they have the same it's a leadership thing it's not that there's not talented people at Apple. That's not that there's not talented product creators and product managers. His leadership is afraid of what to do.
7:31And it's a great lesson of you can't miss time when to invest in the next thing. Can't do it. Every year, InvestFast gets better in terms of production, sound, quality. I'm here. Y 'all said I'm still AI, ingredients, earthlings, all that. cool you have to invest into the project to make it better and i hate it saying it but apple still has the worst ai product in siri
8:00i i can't even when i do market research i have to exit out of siri to go to chat gpt if i'm going to use voice mode to get an actual recantation of what's happening in the market but you have enough money to buy a country continent. It's misplaced capital management at best. So you got to maybe potentially fall into five. Worst case scenario. Worst case. It's sitting right under three trillion. Three companies at three trillion. It's amazing. That is pretty amazing. And NVIDIA is not far from four. You think Apple couldn't have invested in CoreWeave? Yes. but what would be the product or or a blockchain wallet they could have just integrated something in the apple wallet just for show yeah i mean i said we got to watch we got to watch this the core week situation is interesting because even like sam we don't have open ai and obviously and they said if they ipo that could change things and i think we all agree with that but even him now you know recently he's talking about he's he's looking to go away from nvidia's gpus smart moves same as apple went away from intel yeah yeah same playbook i think the greatest business lesson in this is you can we can talk about it on blackout as well but you can either focus on beating your competition or doing what is best for your customer amazon traditionally has focused on what is best for the customers that are in the amazon ecosystem even if that means they are running negative in terms of profitability for 10 to 20 years to give you quicker delivery.
9:44And then the customers will love you so much. They'll scale the business through the amplification of their happiness. But the core, I mean, at the core, yes, we know the e-commerce business, but the moneymaker is the cloud service, right? AWS is a large generator. As you get more AI, you're going to need more cloud. Absolutely. A well-timed, great investment into the future right that's why i said they yeah i agree with you like their cap x spend is always pretty high which obviously brings down the profit margins but at a certain point they're going to start seeking the benefits of oh absolutely investment you know what i mean and i think we're getting to that point we're getting to that point for everyone who asked what would make me change my stance on apple i still believe in it as a company to invest in it is still the core holding the two tech two index what i would love to see is an investment into AI and an investment into blockchain and or crypto and then an investment is a quantum computing.
10:40That will be an investment into the future, not glass lens bullshit for it. And once again, you having that kerfuffle with Zuckerberg and Elon, this y 'all little fight y 'all having meta has you be on the glasses with the Oakley partnership and the one that's coming that i can't talk about wiping down them little google goggles please and then you scrap the ev car once again you can only rashad when you create do you create for the benefit of your audience are you thinking about somebody with a thousand followers who don't like you i think it matters what's your source of creation is it out of love or out of trying to destroy someone else
11:25but what do i know it's youtubers i love y 'all it's just some guys on youtube
11:36okay hit the like button yes and share and do remember thank you to block they are sponsoring 50 % off 100 InvestFest tickets and 10 vendor booths. First come, first serve, general admission, VIP, platinum, whatever. Just the first 100 tickets that go into code block at checkout and the first 10 vendor booths that go into code block at checkout. First come, first serve. okay so we have a question from audience um participation i they said um what do you do what do you use to differentiate the difference between a dead chart versus an amazing opportunity I wish I was scooping up Robin Hood during that base.
12:40I won't miss it. Next bear market. It's a great question. I think the difference between it is not so much the chart is dead. It's if the company is dead or not. So if you take a company like. Zoom, whom I love to use the product, but it's not a great investment or Zillow.
13:05if you compare that with Robinhood, which
13:10Robinhood, I think, was attacked because it decentralized investment opportunity into the market. And from the beginning, they had a great fan base, great business, great CEO, not just saying that because he's a friend of the show, but I think they had a great business and over time it will only be so long that you can hold a great executive and a great company down. If you compare that with a Hertz, the profit margin is terrible. Executive management is not that great. They don't really have a lead. They don't have a product that people love and there's no opportunity for gross margin or profit margin increases there.
13:47I think the difference is just knowing a great company from a bad one. My rule of thumb has always been if you have to ask is a company good it's not greatness you can't avoid um so but when there are opportunities when a company is flat like how robin hood was at that 11 to 15 range i've stated before you want to stack as many shares as you can before they take off same with nvidia same with amd uh we can go to tesla before kathy wood made her proclamation on cnbc and they laughed her off stage and then tesla took off to the upside if you believe in a great company you should throw as many shares as you can into it and i've always said like you want to be in a position minimum to get to a thousand shares and then ultimately ten thousand because at that number you can write your own ticket for life for how much money you're able to produce out of the market so don't look at so much of a dead chart but is the company dead or not yeah yeah i i mean from a technical standpoint I would be looking at the value.
14:55If you want to see where a company is moving or how many people are interested in a company, look at the value. I was trading on a daily basis. I was trading on a weekly basis. I was trading on a monthly basis. I would look at the trends. If you use candlesticks, look at the trends and where they're going. You can see momentum. I think that's one thing that people can see. When they just use a singular line, yeah, it looks pretty preschool. But if you just put candles on, you start to see momentum. You see green, you see red. You look at which way that the momentum is going. An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts.
15:29An MS-13 gang member from El Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man. A Venezuelan charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Kristi Noem, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over 100 ,000 illegal aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally, you're next. You will be fined nearly$1 ,000 a day, imprisoned and deported. You will never return.
16:08But if you register using our CBP Home app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws, border, and families will be protected. Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security. Hey, it's Joel. And Matt. From HowToMoney. If your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back. Prices, they're still high, and the economy is all over the place. But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress. That's right. Each week we break down what's happening with your money.
16:43the most important issues to focus on and the small moves that make a big difference. Kick off the year with confidence, listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult?
17:16NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Dr. Jesse Mills, host of the Mailroom Podcast. Each January, men promise to get stronger, work harder, and fix what's broken. But what if the real work isn't physical at all? I sat down with psychologist Dr. Steve Poulter to unpack shame, anxiety, and the emotional pain men were never taught how to name. Part of the way through the valley of despair is realizing this has happened, and you have to make a choice whether you're going to stay in it or move forward.
18:00Our two-part conversation is available now. Listen to The Mailroom on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
From the publisher
In this can't-miss clip of Market Mondays, hosts Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings, and Ian Dunlap dive deep into the fierce competition between the world's biggest tech companies. Is Apple's reign over as the industry's top dog coming to an end, or can Cupertino make a comeback? The hosts break down who might overtake Apple in market capitalization, what Apple needs to do to avoid falling behind, and which companies are nipping at its heels.
Ian highlights the critical importance of Apple investing in AI and warns that without significant moves—like partnering with leaders in AI or blockchain—Apple could slip even further down the rankings, possibly to fifth place by 2030. The guys discuss heavyweights like Google (Meta), Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Saudi Aramco, analyzing each company's strategies and advantages. Troy emphasizes how automation and cloud services, especially Amazon’s AWS, are transforming profit margins and growth potential in the tech world.
But it’s not just about the winners at the top! The hosts also tackle a fan question about how to spot when a stock is simply “dead” versus when it’s a hidden gem ready to bounce back—using Robinhood, Zoom, and Zillow as prime examples. Ian shares his investing philosophy: instead of focusing on dead charts, look for companies with great fundamentals and management, and don’t miss those moments to load up on quality shares during a downturn.
Whether you’re trading daily or building your long-term portfolio, this Market Mondays clip is packed with insights on:
- The current top 10 companies by market cap
- What’s holding Apple back—and what could help it surge ahead
- Why AI and cloud computing are game-changers
- Tactical investing tips for identifying true opportunities
Plus, enjoy some classic Market Mondays banter and gems you won’t hear anywhere else. Don’t forget to hit the like button, share the video, and check out Invest Fest deals mentioned by the hosts!
*Hashtags:*
#MarketMondays #Apple #Nvidia #Google #Amazon #TechStocks #Investing #AI #StockMarket #Clip #InvestFest #StockTips #FinancialEducation
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