Apple’s stock unexpectedly dropped just minutes into its WWDC 2025 keynote on Monday — and the trigger seems to be one familiar name: Siri.
Roughly six minutes into the presentation, Apple shares fell sharply by more than 2.5%, sliding from around $206 to under $201, wiping out nearly $75 billion in market value.
The plunge came just moments after Apple’s software head, Craig Federighi, highlighted features already rolled out under the Apple Intelligence banner, such as Genmoji, smart reply suggestions, and photo editing tools. But when he shifted the focus to Siri, things took an uncomfortable turn.
“We’re continuing our work to make Siri more personal,” Federighi stated. “This work needed more time to meet our high standards, and we look forward to sharing more next year.”
In other words, Siri’s long-awaited AI upgrade still isn’t ready — and investors clearly didn’t take the news well.
“WWDC gave developers a roadmap, but didn’t deliver on any major progress for Apple Intelligence,” wrote Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives in a note to investors. “We understand the strategy, but Apple is under serious pressure to start monetizing AI — and Cook and his team might have to make some large acquisitions to give their AI push the momentum it needs. We’re confident they can pull it off, but time is running out.”
Wall Street has been anticipating Apple’s big leap into generative AI for over a year, and while expectations for WWDC 2025 weren’t sky-high, many still hoped for a breakthrough.
Meanwhile, rivals like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI continue to accelerate their AI efforts, releasing new models, smarter chatbots, and powerful features at a rapid pace.
Instead of unveiling a bold step forward, Apple stuck to its message that major updates — especially to Siri — are still in development. Earlier this year, the company had to withdraw some promotional materials after being accused of overstating the readiness of its Apple Intelligence features.
The delay points to a bigger issue: Apple has lagged behind in building the core infrastructure and foundational AI models needed to keep pace in the current tech race.
“The lack of progress on Siri was impossible to ignore — the topic was quickly brushed aside for some vague timeline in the future,” said Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee.
“Apple may be fine-tuning its AI features, but no amount of emoji customization or auto-corrections can fill the gap left by the absence of a truly responsive and intelligent AI assistant.”
Apple’s traditional strategy has always been to stay quiet until a product is fully polished. But in today’s hyper-competitive AI market, silence can be costly — even a brief admission that you’re not ready can cause billions in losses.
“The end of the runway is fast approaching for Siri,” Chatterjee warned. “Apple needs to take off — and soon.”
