Mark Zuckerberg Says 'Apple Hasn't Invented Anything Great Since The iPhone' As Meta Blocks Its AI Tools

Silicon Valley’s headline feud just moved from boardrooms to every iPhone screen. As of mid-April, CNET reported that Apple Intelligence—Apple’s AAPL new on-device AI suite—no longer works inside Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads or Messenger. 

The silent change traced back to Meta Platforms  META, which disabled Apple’s application interfaces without fanfare. 

The clash arrives three months after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in January that Apple “hasn’t invented anything great since the iPhone.” Investors are now gauging what this turf war means for mobile AI.

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Error messages appeared first, as iPhone owners tried to launch Apple’s Writing Tools or Genmoji inside Meta’s apps. PCMag reported that the features still load in Safari, signaling a targeted block rather than a system outage.

Meta’s own numbers explain the timing. A Facebook post by Zuckerberg indicates capital spending could rocket to $65 billion in 2025 from $35 billion last year. Those dollars fund custom silicon and fresh server farms. One upcoming facility will draw two gigawatts of electricity—the output of twin nuclear reactors. 

All that infrastructure feeds Meta AI, the assistant now woven through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Shutting out Apple nudges millions toward Meta’s own chatbot for caption rewrites and sticker generation.

Trending: The team behind $6B+ in licensing deals is now building the next billion-dollar IP empire — invest early at $2.25/share.

Apple introduced Apple Intelligence on June 10, during its Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California. A company said that the language-and-vision models run on the A17 Pro chip and relay minimal data to the cloud, pitching faster responses and stronger privacy than server-side peers.

Data from AlphaQuery show 30-day historical volatility for Apple shares hit 0.7775 on April 22. Meanwhile, analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance expect revenue to climb only 4.2% in fiscal 2025, a stark slowdown from pandemic-era booms.

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on April 17 and secured temporary tariff exemptions covering iPhones and MacBooks as fresh China tariffs loomed, according to media reports. 

Zuckerberg’s criticism of Apple’s App Store policies has history, particularly its 30% commission fee, which he has described as “monopoly rents.” 

According to a 2020 Buzzfeed report, Zuckerberg said that Apple’s control over the App Store “blocks innovation, blocks competition,” and allows the company to “charge monopoly rents.” He emphasized that Apple has a “unique stranglehold as a gatekeeper on what gets on phones.”

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