Peter Thiel Calls Apple a Well-Run Value Stock, but Says It’s Done Nothing New Since Steve Jobs
Thiel questions Apple’s innovation
Thiel said the mobile phone was a major invention and that Apple’s subsequent work largely involved scaling, branding and building on it. Jobs introduced the first iPhone in 2007 at a conference in San Francisco.
Apple’s products and criticism
Apple released the 18th iteration of the iPhone this week, with a folding design. The company’s MacBooks are popular with both AI specialists and other users, while iPhones are ubiquitous and AirPods have been widely adopted since their 2016 release.
Apple has drawn criticism for not innovating beyond phones and tablets, particularly as AI develops. Siri has been described as less advanced than products from ChatGPT or Anthropic.
Praise alongside reservations
Thiel did not dismiss Apple entirely, calling it a “pure, well-run value stock.” He said he believed the company had lost vision after Jobs’ death. Thiel also said Elon Musk or Steve Jobs were better for society than Tim Cook. In 2017, he told Maureen Dowd of The New York Times that Apple’s era was over, but the company’s stock price has risen steadily since then.
Key points
- Thiel said Apple had done little new since Steve Jobs died in 2011.
- He described the iPhone as a major invention, followed by years of scaling and branding.
- Apple released a folding version in the iPhone’s 18th iteration this week.
- Thiel praised Apple as a well-run value stock while criticizing its loss of vision.