Rich Duprey
Thu, May 21, 2026 astatine 7:31 AM CDT 5 min read
Quick Read
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Google is pursuing Apple’s playbook of controlling its full exertion stack from bundle to customized semiconductors to little AI infrastructure costs, fortify ecosystem control, and trim dependence connected Nvidia’s commodity GPUs successful the trillion-dollar AI era.
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The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and Apple wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.
Artificial quality has go the caller arms contention for Big Tech, but the conflict is nary longer conscionable astir who has the smartest chatbot. It is progressively astir who controls the hardware underneath it. That matters due to the fact that AI models are costly to train, power-hungry to run, and babelike connected scarce semiconductor supply. So the question savvy investors should inquire is simple: who owns the picks and shovels of the AI golden rush?
Surprisingly, the reply whitethorn not conscionable beryllium Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) anymore. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) appears acceptable to travel the blueprint that turned Apple into 1 of the astir profitable companies connected Earth -- designing its ain chips from apical to bottom.
Apple Proved Vertical Integration Works
Apple’s vantage has ne'er been constricted to the iPhone. Its existent borderline comes from controlling the full ecosystem -- hardware, software, and increasingly, semiconductors.
The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and Apple wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.
The institution began designing its ain A-series chips for iPhones successful 2010 and aboriginal expanded into M-series processors for Macs and iPads. In Apple’s fiscal 2026 2nd quarter, its services gross borderline exceeded 76%, portion wide institution gross borderline reached 49.3%. Those margins bespeak the pricing powerfulness that comes from owning the exertion stack.
More importantly, Apple nary longer depends connected third-party spot designers similar Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) for its halfway products. That displacement improved artillery life, boosted performance, and gave Apple tighter outgo control.
Let’s enactment the numbers into perspective:
| Company | Last Quarter Operating Margin | Quarterly Revenue Growth | Custom Chip Strategy |
| Apple | 32.3% | 17% | Fully in-house |
| Alphabet | 33% (operating borderline successful Google Cloud Q1 2026) | 22% | Semi-custom TPU strategy |
| Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) | 46.3% | 18.3% | Limited customized AI chips |
| Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) | 41% (operating margin) | 33% | Developing in-house AI silicon |
Apple showed Silicon Valley that controlling your ain chips is not conscionable an engineering flex — it is simply a nett machine.

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