Investment firm Evercore has upgraded its price target for Apple to $325 yet again, with expectations that Siri's overhaul will be a major driver in the spring of 2026.
Evercore has already made multiple target price increases since the start of September, with the latest occurring at a very late stage of the year. The investment firm has now upped its target from $300 to $325.
The price upgrade story started on September 9, with a rise from $250 to $260 based on the strength of the iPhone 17 range. A second update in the same month hit $290, as the firm shifted its focus more on the main models rather than the iPhone Air.
By October 31, the price target had gone up to $300, again because of iPhone demand and believing Apple's claims of there being supply constraints.
However, the latest note to investors, seen by AppleInsider on December 7, leaned more the software side of things. Specifically, artificial intelligence.
This isn't just a view held by Evercore. In September, Bernstein restarted its Apple coverage by offering a favorable future for Apple Intelligence and Siri.
A better Siri
The note starts off acknowledging the attention AAPL stock has generated and whether it can maintain momentum from the last few months of progress. But then it turns to saying the focus after the robust iPhone 17 cycle will be a Siri 2.0 launch in the spring.
Current expectations in other rumor reports are for Apple to bring out a new Siri as part of the iOS 26.4 update, due in the spring of 2026. Evercore thinks that the launch could happen in the March timeframe, as part of a three-tiered strategy.
For a start, Evercore expects Apple to use Gemini to power its Siri upgrade. The change will provide multi-modal interaction and broader NPU task management, while maintaining security and privacy. Data will remain on-device or on Apple's servers, not Google's.
Apple will also be enabling more third-party local language model usage, including ChatGPT and Gemini. It is thought this could be Apple's monetization vector for the long term.
Evercore is quite bullish on AI monetization, with AI-as-a-service models and improved LLM partnerships that could help grow Services more. It would become an "AI toll booth" of sorts.
To Evercore's credit, there are indications of Apple laying the ground work for wider third-party AI systems to work. Support for Model Context Protocol could allow other AI tools to interact with apps in the same way as App Intents would for Siri.
