Despite recent market volatility, Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster believes the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is just getting started, positioning mega-cap tech giants—specifically Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL)—as ultimate long-term winners.
The ‘Second Inning’ Of AI
Investors abandoning Big Tech may be making a premature exit. According to Munster, the AI trade is still in the “second inning.” While he sees significant upside in sub-$500 billion market cap companies, he remains firmly bullish on industry titans.
“Most of the big companies are still going to reap massive benefits in the next 5 to 10 years of what’s going to be just some crazy innovation,” Munster said in a recent interview with The Street.
He emphasized that investors who believe AI will profoundly change the world should remain overweight in the tech sector, noting that the Nasdaq is still poised to outperform the broader market.
Winning The Personal AI Race
When it comes to the Magnificent 7, Munster’s top focus is on companies poised to conquer personal, contextual AI. Alphabet and Apple top his list.
Munster recently added to his Apple position, anticipating a major AI overhaul for Siri. However, he warned that Apple needs to prove its technological “competency” to trigger a stock re-rating.
While waiting for a “shiny product” from Apple, he believes investors will remain patient unless a true, dominant consumer competitor emerges. Ultimately, for investors looking ahead, Munster’s absolute top AI stock pick for the next 12 months remains definitively Apple.
“We think that that’s going to be really the center of the bull’s eye in terms of the opportunity for Google and Apple over the next five years,” he explained, citing their unique ability to blend deep personal context with user privacy.
Shifting Away From Legacy Software
While Munster continues to hold infrastructure giants such as Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), he is actively avoiding traditional, seat-based software companies such as Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM).
He predicts that AI-driven “vibe coding” and the potential for a 15% unemployment rate among knowledge workers will dramatically shrink corporate software licenses. Instead, he favors usage-based models like Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW).
AAPL Underperforms In 2026
Shares of AAPL have declined by 7.08% year-to-date, outpacing the losses in the Nasdaq 100 index, which fell by 4.14% in the same period.
The stock was 1.65% lower over the last six months and 12.90% higher over a year. It closed 0.39% higher at $252.62 apiece on Wednesday.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that AAPL maintains a weak price trend over the short and medium terms but a strong trend in the long term, with a solid growth score.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: jamesteohart via Shutterstock
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