When we’re talking about corporations the size of Apple and Microsoft, the idea of either “losing” might be a difficult concept to register. When companies grow to such a colossal size and have brand visibility in all corners of the globe, it seems like they can’t get much wrong.
Likewise, when they actually get things wrong, the juggernaut they’ve created doesn’t seem to slow down one iota. As with many of the great imperial conglomerates of the past and present, the only thing that can slow them down is the quality of the competition or themselves—or, in some cases, both.
To claim AI has just appeared out of thin air would be a total fallacy, but the speed at which it has broken new ground over the last two or three years has been mesmerizing, spectacular, and unnerving in equal measure. As a result of the advances since 2022, trillions of dollars are funneling their way through the industry.
It looks like there will be a direct showdown between Apple and Microsoft to see which company can implement the technology most effectively and get their hands on the almost incalculable profit that AI will generate over the next few decades.
Integrating AI In Practical Settings
Microsoft has positioned itself well with AI, and it has been investing in it for most of the 21st century. At the same time, its recent investment has skyrocketed. However, its early foundations have meant that it isn’t a minnow in this sector. Early implementations of AI technology include spellcheck and predictive text on Microsoft Word and autonomous smart home systems that link to your Microsoft phone laptop or are hands-free and voice-commanded.
Of all the developing and practical use cases of AI that will impact our daily lives, new smart home devices have arguably the most considerable scope for widespread implementation. While ChatGPT or other ideas might be taking the limelight, AI’s ability to fuse with other innovative, expansive technologies like IoT will result in smart homes becoming one of the most evident ways AI will change our lives.
Microsoft is already ahead of its competition in this regard. Apple might have gotten ahead in certain elements, such as developing Siri and other voice-commanded tools. However, the recent news that Apple and Meta have been looking to join forces with their AI capabilities should indicate how far ahead Microsoft has climbed in a relatively short period.
Which Company Will Come Out On Top?
We can’t discuss which company will be the most successful in AI without throwing Nvidia in the mix. Their stock price has risen by over 1,000% in the last four years, culminating in Jensen Huang’s company briefly surpassing Microsoft as the world’s most valuable before a somewhat predictable yet violent stock sell-off that took $220 billion off its valuation.
This by no means signals that AI has peaked – a healthy market retraction is expected when a company has grown as exponentially as Nvidia has since 2020. Up until now, Microsoft’s strategic AI investments have been a significant part of the reason their stock has exploded.
The Nvidia Problem
However, recent company plans have shown that they are now offering AMD alternatives to cloud customers, which shows that they’re positioning themselves as a direct competitor of Nvidia and looking to get ahead of them in elements of their own field.
While Nvidia might have the groundbreaking GPU processors and the market-leading AI technology, Microsoft’s technological infrastructure, whether it’s their billions of smartphone devices or offices all over the world that use their packages, means that once they get some of their AI ideas off the ground, they will have a seamless technological distribution network than Nvidia currently have.
Apple has a similar network, but given that they’re notably behind Nvidia and Microsoft, the fact that they’ve fallen just a few months behind could be the main component that has them languishing in third place behind Microsoft and Nvidia in years to come.
Conclusion
Microsoft has got itself ahead of the curve with AI – it only feels like a decade or two ago when it felt like they were churning out products to try and compete with the other titans in the tech sector and coming up short. It felt like their quest into mobile phones was doomed from the off, especially with the unstoppable presence of Apple. While Bing is still a product Microsoft gets behind, again, it played second fiddle by quite a considerable distance to Google.
Patience is vital; in Microsoft’s case, it has proven to be a virtue. Great investments and business decisions are often about timing. Microsoft’s decision to hoover up and invest tens of billions of dollars into various AI technologies was hardly going against the grain.
However, they have done it quickly and far more effectively than Apple, allowing them to get ahead, and you’d think this early move will pay dividends in the long run. While we can never write off Apple in any endeavor, it feels like Microsoft is back in the ascendancy.
