$Apple(AAPL.US)

Recently, a very popular narrative has emerged, suggesting that while other companies are frantically borrowing money and pouring cash into AI model training, Apple hasn't spent a single "wasted penny" and instead is taking the "easiest money" in the AI circle.

Apple has neither spent money on buying GPUs nor on training large models, yet it ends up collecting subscription commissions from various AI applications.

Moreover, Apple doesn't even need to ask; companies are vying to offer their AI models.

When I first saw this argument, I had a very familiar feeling.

In Lao She's novel "Teahouse," Tang Tie-zi said something similar: "British Empire's opium, Japan's 'white powder,' two great powers serving me alone. Is this not a great blessing?"

It's hard to imagine that at the moment the curtain of the AI era is slowly rising, Apple is not contributing its own large model to this great era but is instead flaunting its own winning formula.

While Apple's management is smug about "not wasting money on AI," a great AI revolution is quietly happening outside Apple's headquarters.