A group of shareholders has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company and its top management of securities fraud. The plaintiffs claim that the company exaggerated its achievements in artificial intelligence, which misled investors and led to significant financial losses. NBC News reported this.
The essence of the allegations
The lawsuit is based on statements made by Apple at a developer conference in June 2024. At that time, the company gave the impression that a key feature of the future iPhone 16 would be a new Apple Intelligence platform, which was supposed to dramatically improve the capabilities of the Siri voice assistant.
However, according to shareholders led by Eric Tucker, at the time of the announcement, Apple did not have a working prototype of the promised AI features for Siri and could not reasonably expect them to be ready for the release of the iPhone 16. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, also names CEO Tim Cook and other company executives as defendants.
Chronology of disappointment
After the high-profile announcements, Apple’s stock reached a record high on December 26, 2024. However, according to the plaintiffs, by March 7, 2025, “the truth began to emerge” when information appeared about postponing the Siri update to 2026.
Investor disappointment intensified after the developer conference on June 9, 2025, when real progress in AI fell short of analysts’ expectations. As a result, Apple’s stock lost nearly a quarter of its value from its peak, reducing its market capitalization to approximately $900 billion.
Internal development issues
According to the publication, Apple has been trying to improve Siri’s conversational capabilities for several years but has encountered technological difficulties. Over a year ago, the team responsible for Siri’s user interaction was transferred from the artificial intelligence division to another group. Despite claims of a “new era” for Siri, the updates related to Apple Intelligence have been mostly cosmetic, and a complete overhaul of the software has not yet been completed. Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
What the plaintiffs must prove
The lawsuit against Apple is a classic example of a securities fraud charge, which is a serious offense in US law. To prove their case in court, the plaintiffs (shareholders) must demonstrate that the company made a materially false or misleading statement, that the statement was made to deceive investors, and that they suffered financial losses due to relying on the statement. Such cases often focus on proving that the company’s public statements did not correspond to its actual internal condition.