Apple just delivered its best March quarter in company history, and Warren Buffett is not moving an inch. With shares trading near $300 and the company sitting at a $4.4 trillion market cap, investors are right to ask whether the upside is already priced in. Three powerful long-term growth engines suggest the run may be far from over.
Apple Smashes Records as Buffett Stays All In
Apple’s fiscal second quarter of 2026 was not just good. It was historic.
Revenue for the three-month period ending March 28, 2026 came in at $111.2 billion, up 17% year over year. Earnings per share hit $2.01, a 22% jump from the same period last year. CEO Tim Cook described it as the company’s best March quarter ever, with double-digit revenue growth posted across every single geographic segment worldwide.
The stock has reflected this strength. Apple shares have climbed more than 40% over the past 12 months, recovering sharply from a 52-week low near $193 to trade around $299 to $300.
Warren Buffett is not surprised. After years of gradually trimming his position, Berkshire Hathaway still holds Apple as its single largest equity holding, accounting for roughly 22% of its entire stock portfolio. In a CNBC interview earlier this year, Buffett said he is “very happy to have it be our largest holding.” Berkshire’s incoming CEO Greg Abel has also signaled that Apple remains a core long-term position in the conglomerate’s strategy.
The Services Machine Just Hit Another All-Time High
Services is now Apple’s most powerful and most profitable growth engine, and it keeps accelerating.
In fiscal Q2 2026, services revenue reached nearly $31 billion, an all-time record for the segment. That represents 16% growth year over year, accelerating from 14% growth in the prior quarter. The services business is now running at a roughly $124 billion annual revenue rate, a number that would make it one of the largest standalone software companies in the world.
What makes this even more significant is the margin gap between services and hardware.
| Segment | Gross Margin |
|---|---|
| Services | ~75% |
| Products | ~38% |
When services grows faster than the rest of the business, Apple’s overall profit margins move structurally higher. That is a compounding benefit that directly rewards long-term shareholders.
The foundation of this flywheel is Apple’s installed base, which has now grown to more than 2.5 billion active devices, up from about 2.35 billion a year ago. Every new device added to this ecosystem becomes a potential subscriber for the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay, and a growing list of other services. As the base grows, so does the recurring revenue opportunity attached to it.
Apple Intelligence Is Already Driving a New iPhone Upgrade Wave
iPhone revenue in fiscal Q2 jumped 22% year over year to a March quarter record of $57 billion. That followed a 23% rise in fiscal Q1, when iPhone sales hit $85.3 billion. Management confirmed that the iPhone 17 family is now the most popular iPhone lineup in the company’s entire history.
The driver behind these numbers is Apple Intelligence, the company’s on-device AI layer that brings generative features directly to the iPhone experience. Apple is also collaborating with Google to develop the next generation of its AI foundation models, and a more personalized, deeply integrated version of Siri is expected to roll out later in 2026.
This upgrade cycle could have years of fuel left. Millions of older iPhone models cannot run Apple Intelligence features, making them natural upgrade candidates over the next two to three years.
- iPhone 17 lineup is Apple’s most popular in company history
- Apple Intelligence runs on-device for faster performance and privacy
- Next-gen Siri with deeper personalization is set to arrive later in 2026
- Older iPhones incompatible with AI features create a built-in upgrade wave
Each hardware upgrade also deepens the owner’s connection to Apple’s high-margin services ecosystem, creating a direct and measurable link between AI adoption and recurring revenue growth.
India Is Apple’s Next Big Chapter and China Surprised Everyone
Apple’s most exciting long-term geographic opportunity is playing out in India right now.
Cook called India “a huge opportunity” on the latest earnings call, pointing out it is the second largest smartphone market and the third largest PC market in the world. Yet Apple holds only a modest share there today. The company opened its sixth retail store in India earlier this year and posted double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac, and iPad sales across the region. India’s expanding middle class, younger population, and rising digital adoption give Apple a growth profile that could mirror what it built in China over the past decade.
“We’re seeing double-digit growth in the majority of the markets we track from the U.S. to Latin America to Greater China to Western Europe to India to Japan to Southeast Asia.” – Tim Cook, Apple CEO
Meanwhile, Greater China, Apple’s most closely watched and debated geographic segment, delivered a strong quarter too. Revenue from that region grew 28% year over year to $20.5 billion in fiscal Q2, pushing back against concerns about slowing demand there.
At a price-to-earnings ratio of around 35, Apple shares are not cheap, and if iPhone growth or services momentum slows, the stock could give back some recent gains. But with a high-margin services flywheel accelerating, an AI-driven upgrade cycle still in its early innings, and emerging market expansion in full swing, the long-term investment case for this Buffett-backed tech giant remains remarkably intact. For investors willing to think in years rather than months, Apple may still have a very long runway ahead. Do you think Apple stock is still worth buying near $300, or has the rally gone too far? Drop your thoughts in the comments below and share this with your investor friends using #AAPL on social media.
