— Apple Inc.’s stock plunged as investors reacted to fresh reports that the company has struggled for more than a year to complete a more advanced version of its Siri assistant. Shares of AAPL closed down about 5% on Thursday, wiping roughly $202 billion off the company’s market capitalization, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The slide was driven by renewed concerns that further delays in the Siri upgrade will hamper Apple’s competitiveness in AI-driven services. The single-day loss ranks as the second-largest market-cap drop in Apple’s history.
Key Takeaways
- Apple shares (AAPL) fell approximately 5% on Feb. 12, 2026, erasing about $202 billion in market value, per Dow Jones Market Data.
- The decline is the company’s second-largest one-day market-cap loss, behind a $311 billion drop on Apr. 3, 2025 tied to tariff anxiety.
- Reports indicate Apple has been working for over a year on a significantly upgraded Siri; further rollout delays are now a market concern.
- Investors are pricing in increased execution risk on AI features that were expected to drive services revenue growth.
- Market reaction reflects broader investor sensitivity to AI timelines for major tech firms, not only Apple.
Background
Apple has publicly pitched services and artificial-intelligence enhancements as a key part of its growth strategy following saturation in iPhone hardware sales. The company’s roadmap included a more capable Siri iteration intended to power new features across iPhone, iPad and Mac hardware as well as subscription services. Delivering advanced conversational AI has proved technically challenging for many incumbents, and Apple has faced engineering and product-integration hurdles that industry reporting says have slowed progress.
Investor expectations for immediate AI-driven revenue have heightened since major generative-AI breakthroughs in 2023–2024, raising the bar for hardware and software incumbents. Apple, with one of the largest installed bases of devices, is seen as having a large opportunity if it executes, but also a larger downside if it misses timing. The company’s previous big market-cap swing—an approximately $311 billion one-day drop on Apr. 3, 2025—was tied to tariff fears and underscored how singular events can move Apple’s valuation sharply.
Main Event
On Feb. 12, 2026, headlines citing internal delays and engineering setbacks for Siri coincided with a broad retreat in risk appetite for growth-sensitive tech names. AAPL closed down roughly 5% that day; intraday volatility and volume rose as institutional and retail investors adjusted positions. Market data providers quantified the one-day market-cap decline at about $202 billion, a figure that circulated through trading desks and financial news feeds.
Sources familiar with Apple’s development timeline told reporters that debugging and safety-testing phases for the new Siri features have taken longer than originally planned. That slowed availability pushed back the expected contribution of those features to services revenue and device differentiation. Traders interpreted the news as an increase in execution risk—i.e., uncertainty over when and how the upgrades will reach consumers at scale.
The sell-off was not limited to Apple; some suppliers and AI-adjacent hardware names experienced correlated weakness. However, Apple’s scale made the move especially salient for indexes and funds with large AAPL exposure. Market commentators noted that even a modest delay in a major product initiative can have outsized market-cap impacts for a company of Apple’s size.
Analysis & Implications
First, the market’s immediate reaction reflects expectations that AI-enabled software features will materially affect Apple’s services revenue trajectory. Investors had been looking to Siri upgrades and integrated AI capabilities as drivers for higher recurring revenue per user; any delay pushes expected cash flows further into the future and raises discounting effects on valuation.
Second, the episode exposes execution risk: Apple’s competitive edge has long been tight integration of hardware and software. Complex features that require cross-team coordination—model training, privacy-preserving inference on-device, user experience polish—are time-consuming. If Apple cannot ship a cohesive AI experience soon, competitors with faster deployment cycles could seize mindshare and market share in critical software-led services.
Third, the magnitude of the market-cap swing underscores how concentrated investor portfolios are in megacap technology names. Large valuation moves at a single company ripple through index funds, ETFs and investor psychology. That amplifies downside when headlines raise doubts about roadmaps for high-expectation features like advanced conversational assistants.
Comparison & Data
| Date | One-Day Market-Cap Loss | Primary Concern |
|---|---|---|
| Apr. 3, 2025 | $311 billion | Tariff fears |
| Feb. 12, 2026 | $202 billion | AI / Siri rollout delays |
The table above compares the two largest one-day market-cap losses in Apple’s history, showing that the Feb. 12, 2026 decline is second only to the Apr. 3, 2025 tariff-driven drop. While the underlying catalysts differ—policy risk versus product-execution risk—both episodes highlight how single events can quickly reshape valuations for a company of Apple’s scale.
Reactions & Quotes
Apple’s one-day market-cap loss of roughly $202 billion on Feb. 12 ranks as the company’s second-largest, reflecting sharp investor repricing around product execution risk.
Dow Jones Market Data (market-data provider)
Investors appear to be repricing the timeline for AI-driven services at large-cap tech firms after reports of further delays to a key consumer-facing AI feature.
MarketWatch (news outlet)
Unconfirmed
- Precise internal timeline for the Siri upgrade remains unconfirmed; public reports indicate delays but Apple has not released a final schedule.
- Claims about specific technical roadblocks or personnel shakeups related to the Siri project have not been independently verified.
- Potential short-term revenue impact from the delay is estimated by market observers but has not been disclosed by Apple.
Bottom Line
The market’s reaction on Feb. 12, 2026, reflects heightened sensitivity to AI-execution timelines at major tech companies. For Apple, the immediate concern is that further delays to a flagship Siri upgrade could defer the revenue and differentiation benefits investors expected from AI-enhanced services. That uncertainty translates into a valuation haircut as investors adjust expectations for when—or whether—those benefits will materialize.
Looking ahead, the critical factors to watch are concrete product-release milestones from Apple, reimbursement of investor confidence through demonstrable demos or staged rollouts, and any investor communications that tighten the company’s guidance on services growth. Until Apple offers a clearer timeline or visible progress, the stock may remain vulnerable to headline-driven swings tied to AI execution risk.
Sources
- MarketWatch (news outlet) — original report summarizing market reaction and coverage of Siri delays.
- Dow Jones Market Data (market-data provider) — provided market-cap loss calculations cited in trading reports.
- Apple Newsroom (official) — Apple’s official channel for product and corporate announcements; no new release on Siri timeline as of Feb. 12, 2026.