Peter Thiel says Apple has done nothing new since Steve Jobs

Peter Thiel, the billionaire PayPal cofounder and tech investor, says Apple has done nothing new since the death of its founder, Steve Jobs, in 2011. Speaking in a September interview with author Walter Isaacson for the Builder's Podcast released on Thursday, Thiel said he has not been impressed with the iPhone maker.

According to Business Insider, Thiel argued that after the mobile phone, there was not much more to do besides scaling and branding over the last 15 years. Apple has faced criticism for failing to innovate beyond phones and tablets, especially in the age of artificial intelligence, where its Siri voice assistant trails rivals from ChatGPT and Anthropic.

Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone back in 2007 at a conference in San Francisco. Nearly 20 years later, Apple just released the 18th iteration of the device, which now folds. MacBooks remain the de facto laptops for many artificial intelligence developers, and sleek AirPods took hold after their 2016 release.

Thiel did not dismiss Apple entirely, calling it a pure, well-run value stock, but he lamented the loss of visionary leadership. Tim Cook currently serves as the chief executive officer of Apple, leading the trillion-dollar technology giant. Thiel added that leaders like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are better for society than Cook.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent on Saturday. Check your portfolio if you hold the stock.

Photo: Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons