AI Is Like a Religion, and Apple Is a 'Staunch Atheist'

To one observer, the tech industry's frenzied investment in AI is nothing more than collective charlatanism.

In the view of financial writer Alberto, faith in AI is no different from religious belief—you either believe it will change everything, or you do not believe at all, with no middle ground. Viewed through this lens, while Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have collectively committed to $670 billion in capital expenditures by 2026, Apple plans to invest only $14 billion, approximately 2% of the former group's total. Alberto's conclusion is that Apple is the only true atheist in Silicon Valley, while the other giants are merely 'atheists out of fear'—disbelieving internally but feigning piety out of fear.

This judgment directly challenges the mainstream narrative regarding Apple's AI strategy. The conventional interpretation in Silicon Valley is that Apple is falling behind, with Siri having become an industry laughingstock for years, and internal executives even describing related progress as 'ugly and embarrassing.' However, Alberto argues the opposite: Apple is currently the most powerful tech company because its actions align with its genuine beliefs.

Successor Choice Reflects Corporate Beliefs

Personnel decisions often reveal a company's true strategic orientation most clearly.

According to previous media reports, Tim Cook announced in April 2026 that he would step down as CEO, with his successor being John Ternus, who has been with Apple for 25 years and oversees hardware engineering—also not someone from the 'AI circle.' Alberto points out that Cook could have chosen a successor who would shift the company's focus toward AI, but instead selected another executive without an AI background. In his view, this is the clearest footnote to Apple's 'fearless atheism': not only does it disbelieve, but it makes no attempt to hide it.

Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, Apple announced in March 2026 that it would open Siri interfaces to third-party AI models, allowing users to directly call ChatGPT or Claude from Siri. Alberto interprets this as strong evidence that Apple views AI models as interchangeable commodities—like electricity, they are infrastructure rather than sacred machines. 'You would only do this if you believed AI models are replaceable,' he wrote.

The Performance and Hedging of Giants

Compared to Apple's candor, the AI narratives of other tech giants appear full of contradictions and performativity in Alberto's eyes.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg loudly proclaims 'personal superintelligence,' yet had previously bet billions on 3D printing and the metaverse; its core consumer-facing AI product is merely a chatbot embedded within WhatsApp.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai simultaneously launched Spark, a '24/7 personal agent,' and Omni, a 'proto-AGI,' as if both stemmed from the same logic; Google spent approximately $93 billion on AI last year, with the final implemented results being 'slightly worse reply suggestions' in Gmail and generating incorrect answers in search. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella invested in OpenAI earlier than anyone else, yet forced its Office customers to use only Copilot. Elon Musk builds ultra-large AI data centers and then rents them to competitors to earn profits.

'These people keep praying to all gods, fearing that the god they worship might not be the true one,' Alberto wrote. He characterizes this behavior as the 'Pascal's Wager' in theology: unable to prove that AI is transformative, but if it truly is transformative and they have not invested, the cost is unbearable; if they invest and AI fails to transform, the lost capital can be recouped through advertising business. Thus, they pay their tithes on time, go to church on Sundays, fast during Ramadan, and observe the Sabbath on Saturdays.

Market Implications of 'Belief Consistency'

Alberto's core argument has direct reference value for investors evaluating tech companies' AI strategies.

He believes that companies making massive investments in AI infrastructure are essentially 'grafting' AI onto existing products—much like grafting social features onto original products in the past. They 'talk like revolutionaries but deliver like conservatives.' In Alberto's view, the upper limit of this model is nothing more than 'a new internet bubble.'

In contrast, Apple, with its extremely low capital expenditure, open model access strategy, and a successor CEO without an AI background, demonstrates a posture of internal and external consistency. Alberto believes that this consistency itself is a competitive advantage—at least a form of credibility. He concludes that Apple is willing to let its actions align with its true beliefs, which is 'a stance worthy of respect.'