Sep 28, 2026 · 50 min
Apple’s next big bet could span AI, robots, and sunlight
The 5 Companies Apple Must Buy
The episode tests whether Apple should make larger strategic acquisitions while examining how personalized UV data could turn a wearable into a research platform.
- 1The draft frames Siri, search, robotics, chips, transportation, and entertainment as possible fronts for Apple’s next expansion.
- 2The hosts favor strategic purchases ranging from ElevenLabs and Perplexity to Boston Dynamics, Lucid, Etched, and local-AI companies.
- 3The 90’s pendant separates UVA and UVB exposure, calculates a personalized Sun Score, and could support large-scale health research.
Don't miss
Stacy Salvi explains how The 90’s pendant separates UVA and UVB exposure, accounts for protection and skin type, and turns the data into a personalized Sun Score.
The brief
Jason Calacanis and Lon Harris turn Apple’s acquisition strategy into a five-round draft, asking whether the company should move beyond small technical tuck-ins toward larger strategic bets.
Their picks map Apple’s possible next arenas: ElevenLabs for Siri, Perplexity for search and AI agents, Boston Dynamics for robotics, Etched for chips, Lucid for transportation, and GoAI for local AI.
Audience suggestions reinforce the draft’s central tension: Apple could strengthen its ecosystem through focused technical acquisitions, but larger moves such as Disney, Sony, or Netflix would reshape the company.
Stacy Salvi, co-founder and CEO of The 90, introduces a pendant that separately measures UVA and UVB exposure and adjusts its Sun Score for skin type and protection.
The conversation’s broader proposition is that individualized sunlight data could help people manage exposure while creating a valuable research resource for studying skin and aging-related conditions.
What was said on this episode
26 statements · 20 positive · 3 negative · 1 mixed · 2 neutral
John Ternus should pursue large strategic acquisitions instead of Apple share buybacks.
“I believe John Ternus should stop buying back the shares and should take massively big swings.”
Listen at 0:25
Voice-controlled phones could let drivers handle messaging and email without typing.
“I think the idea, especially you could think of driving, where I still going home from work every, every day, there's people like almost killing me doing this. If you could just have your phone in the car and you could just talk to it, people are— you're texting people, you're sending memos, you're answering emails your entire life.”
Listen at 3:37
ElevenLabs could enable a fully voice-commanded iPhone system beyond improving Siri.
“Above and beyond fixing Siri and making your whole phone a voice-commanded system, I think, I think ElevenLabs is the one.”
Listen at 3:58
Apple ownership of Disney could integrate Disney content and park experiences across Apple devices.
“Disney is a large company that if you were to have on your devices every Disney show as part of your Apple One, uh, you take your iPhone to the parks, you know, everything there.”
Listen at 5:01
Combining Apple and Disney would unlock substantial synergies.
“if Apple and Disney were the same company, you know, unbelievable synergies to be unlocked there.”
Listen at 6:08
Sony would be an affordable strategic acquisition for Apple.
“I'm picking Sony for number 2. Again, a relative steal if you are Apple.”
Listen at 6:24
Acquiring Sony would give Apple access to PlayStation hardware in millions of homes.
“The big one here is the PlayStation. I think Apple immediately gets another device that's in millions and millions of homes that people are obsessed with”
Listen at 6:33
Apple will eventually need to offer a robot.
“eventually Apple will have no choice but to have a robot”
Listen at 8:30
An Apple-branded robot could earn substantial consumer trust.
“they could start working on the Apple A1 robot, you know? And oh my Lord, people would trust an Apple robot.”
Listen at 8:38
Perplexity could serve as a model-agnostic AI routing layer for Apple devices.
“Perplexity would be the perfect router and system that you could plug into your Apple device.”
Listen at 9:40
Apple acquisition targets should potentially create $100–500 billion revenue streams.
“I'm looking for things that could build a $100 billion, a $200 billion, a $500 billion revenue stream.”
Listen at 11:24
Apple might need to pay about $25 billion to acquire DigitalOcean.
“DigitalOcean is like $10, $15 billion, $20 billion, depending on when you would buy it. You have to pay a premium. So you probably have to pay 50%. So that's going to be a $25 billion acquisition.”
Listen at 12:27
DigitalOcean could become a $50–100 billion revenue line for Apple.
“It could easily become a $50 or $100 billion revenue line.”
Listen at 12:45
Etched provides the type of AI chip Apple urgently needs.
“Etched is exactly the kind of AI chip that Apple desperately needs.”
Listen at 13:10
Etched chips are designed for large-scale inference serving Siri and Apple Intelligence.
“Siri and Apple Intelligence are answering all of these requests, billions and billions of devices. That's the kind of job that Etched is building all of these chips for.”
Listen at 13:22
Acquiring Superhuman could rapidly improve multiple Apple productivity products.
“by just buying the company out, Apple could like upgrade all of its products overnight.”
Listen at 15:58
Local AI is likely to be the most important opportunity among the options.
“local AI is the big winner.”
Listen at 17:52
Sony could become a rival to Netflix if acquired by Apple.
“with Sony, I think they, they, they could essentially, they could become a Netflix rival.”
Listen at 18:40
WorldLabs is building spatial intelligence for future agents and robotics.
“at number 2, I would have WorldLabs because they're building spatial intelligence.”
Listen at 21:30
UV exposure causes 90% of skin photoaging.
“90% of photoaging that happens to the skin is due to UV exposure”
Listen at 27:09
The 90 separately measures UVA and UVB because they affect skin and health differently.
“We measure both on separate 3-way photodiode sensor because each of those impacts our skin and our health differently.”
Listen at 30:54
Tracking circadian light can indicate deeper sleep and fewer nighttime awakenings.
“when you actually get it and you track it, we can tell when you get deeper sleep, fewer awake moments over the course of the evening.”
Listen at 33:18
Sunlight affects approximately 60 health conditions.
“There are about 60 different health conditions that are impacted by sunlight”
Listen at 33:36
Skin continues processing heavy sunlight exposure for up to five days.
“when we're exposed to a lot of sunlight on a particular day, our skin is actually still processing that up to 5 days later”
Listen at 40:30
On-body UV sensors produce higher-fidelity and richer health datasets.
“the more we can measure by having these sensors on body, um, the higher fidelity of data and the richer the dataset's going to get.”
Listen at 43:54
Severe sunburn is linked to a higher incidence of melanoma.
“We know that that's linked to a higher incidence of melanoma.”
Listen at 48:30
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
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