Apple (AAPL) AI Chief Jumps to Meta—Evercore Still Bullish With $250 Target

Ghazal Ahmed

Wed, Jul 9, 2025, 2:19 PM 1 min read

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Investors Are Watching This Week. On July 8, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani reiterated an “Outperform” rating on the stock with a $250.00 price target.

The rating affirmation follows the departure of Apple’s key artificial intelligence executive, Ruoming Pang, who left the company for Meta. Pang had been leading Apple’s foundational models team since joining from Google back in 2021.

He overlooked a team of 100 people who were responsible for developing large language models (LLMs) that power Apple Intelligence and similar AI features.

The departure seemingly follows Apple’s recent changes in its AI division, under the direction of Mike Rockwell since April. According to Evercore ISI, the leadership changes reportedly had an impact on team morale and eventually led Pang to exit the company.

However, the main reason would have likely been compensation in the “tens of millions” annually offered by the other company. Nevertheless, the firm believes that Apple’s approach to AI is “prudently flexible and cost conscious,” whereby its strategy “preserves capital and optionality” for various monetization opportunities.

Apple is a technology company known for its consumer electronics, particularly the iPhones and MacBooks.

While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Trending AI Stocks on News and Ratings and Top 10 AI Stocks in the Spotlight. Disclosure: None.