Apple CEO Tim Cook says company is ‘investing significantly’ in generative AI
Apple CEO Tim Cook (2nd R) greets customers as he arrives for the release of the Vision Pro headset at the Apple Store in New York City on February 2, 2024.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday that his company is pouring money into artificial intelligence, one of the strongest signals yet that the iPhone maker is embracing the generative AI craze that’s consumed the tech industry.
The company sees “incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI, which is why we’re currently investing significantly in this area,” Cook said at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting, which was held virtually. “We believe it will unlock transformative opportunities for our users when it comes to productivity, problem-solving and more.”
Apple hasn’t unveiled competing products to models like OpenAI’s GPT or Google’s Gemini, but he teased a major announcement coming this year.
“Later this year, I look forward to sharing with you the ways we will break new ground in generative AI, another technology we believe can redefine the future,” Cook said.
He also reframed several announced Apple products as “AI-powered,” to emphasize that the company has been working on the technology for years. In the past, the company tended to avoid the term AI in favor of machine learning.
Current features that use Apple’s AI technology include the Vision Pro’s hand-tracking tool and Apple Watch’s heart rate alerts, Cook said. He also said that Apple’s chips inside its MacBooks are capable of running AI.
“AI is woven into our users’ lives for all sorts of tasks, from the everyday to the essential,” Cook said. “AI allows Apple Watch to help you track your workouts, automatically detecting whether you’re taking a walk or going for a swim. It enables your iPhone to call for help if you’re in a car accident.”
Apple often announces new software products and features in June at its annual developer’s conference.
At the meeting, Cook was not asked about the Apple Car project, which he’d previously called the “mother of all AI projects.” Employees were told Tuesday that the program was being disbanded.
In response to a general question about what products the company chooses to release, Cook said, “much of this is about focus.”
The remarks came after Apple shareholders rejected a proposal that would compel the company to produce a report on AI risks.
The proposal submitted by AFL-CIO Equity Index Funds was read at the meeting by Apple retail employee and union organizer Michael Forsythe and would have pushed the company to disclose ethical guidelines for AI. Apple opposed the effort, claiming such a move could disclose company secrets.
At the meeting, shareholders approved Apple’s board of directors, including electing former Aerospace CEO Wanda Austin, who is joining as Al Gore and James Bell retire. Shareholders also approved the company’s auditor and executive pay.
Five separate independent shareholder proposals opposed by Apple were rejected, including the AI report.
Correction: A proposal submitted by AFL-CIO Equity Index Funds was read at the meeting. An earlier version misstated its name.
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The Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, June 9, 2023.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Silicon Valley executives and financiers publicly opened their wallets in support of President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential run. The early returns in 2025 aren’t great, to say the least.
Following Trump’s sweeping tariff plan announced Wednesday, the Nasdaq suffered steep consecutive daily drops to finish 10% lower for the week, the index’s worst performance since the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
The tech industry’s leading CEO’s rushed to contribute to Trump’s inauguration in January and paraded to Washington, D.C., for the event. Since then, it’s been a slog.
The market can always turn around, but economists and investors aren’t optimistic, and concerns are building of a potential recession. The seven most valuable U.S. tech companies lost a combined $1.8 trillion in market cap in two days.
Apple slid 14% for the week, its biggest drop in more than five years. Tesla, led by top Trump adviser Elon Musk, plunged 9.2% and is now down more than 40% for the year. Musk contributed close to $300 million to help propel Trump back to the White House.
Nvidia, Meta and Amazon all suffered double-digit drops for the week. For Amazon, a ninth straight weekly decline marks its longest such losing streak since 2008.
With Wall Street selling out of risky assets on concern that widespread tariff hikes will punish the U.S. and global economy, the fallout has drifted down to the IPO market. Online lender Klarna and ticketing marketplace StubHub delayed their IPOs due to market turbulence, just weeks after filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and fintech company Chime is also reportedly delaying its listing.
CoreWeave, a provider of artificial intelligence infrastructure, last week became the first venture-backed company to raise more than $1 billion in a U.S. IPO since 2021. But the company slashed its offering, and trading has been very volatile in its opening days on the market. The stock plunged 12% on Friday, leaving it 17% above its offer price but below the bottom of its initial range.
“You couldn’t create a worse market and macro environment to go public,” said Phil Haslett, co-founder of EquityZen, a platform for investing in private companies. “Way too much turbulence. All flights are grounded until further notice.”
CoreWeave investor Mark Klein of SuRo Capital previously told CNBC that the company could be the first in an “IPO parade.” Now he’s backtracking.
“It appears that the IPO parade has been temporarily halted,” Klein told CNBC by email on Friday. “The current tariff situation has prompted these companies to pause and assess its impact.”
‘Cave rapidly’
During last year’s presidential campaign, prominent venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen backed Trump, expecting that his administration would usher in a boom and eliminate some of the hurdles to startup growth set up by the Biden administration. Andreessen and his partner, Ben Horowitz, said in July that their financial support of the Trump campaign was due to what they called a better “little tech agenda.”
A spokesperson for Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment.
Some techies who supported Trump in the campaign have taken to social media to defend their positions.
Venture capitalist Keith Rabois, a managing director at Khosla Ventures, posted on X on Thursday that “Trump Derangement Syndrome has morphed into Tariff Derangement Syndrome.” He said tariffs aren’t inflationary, are effective at reducing fentanyl imports, and he expects that “most other countries will cave and cave rapidly.”
That was before China’s Finance Ministry said on Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on all goods imported from the U.S. starting on April 10.
At Sequoia Capital, which is the biggest investor in Klarna, outspoken Trump supporter Shaun Maguire, wrote on X, “The first long-term thinking President of my lifetime,” and said in a separate post that, “The price of stocks says almost nothing about the long term health of an economy.”
However, Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian warned on Friday that Trump’s extensive raft of import tariffs are putting the U.S. economy at risk of recession.
“You’ve had a major repricing of growth prospects, with a recession in the U.S. going up to 50% probability, you’ve seen an increase in inflation expectations, up to 3.5%,” he told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy.
Former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates, left, and Steve Ballmer, center, pose for photos with CEO Satya Nadella during an event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Microsoft on April 4, 2025 in Redmond, Washington.
Stephen Brashear | Getty Images
Meanwhile, executives at tech’s megacap companies were largely silent this week, and their public relations representatives declined to provide comments about their thinking.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was in the awkward position on Friday of celebrating his company’s 50th anniversary at corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Alongside Microsoft’s prior two CEOs, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Nadella sat down with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin for a televised interview that was planned well before Trump’s tariff announcement.
When asked about the tariffs at the top of the interview, Nadella effectively dodged the question and avoided expressing his views about whether the new policies will hamper Microsoft’s business.
Ballmer, who was succeeded by Nadella in 2014, acknowledged to Sorkin that “disruption is very hard on people” and that, “as a Microsoft shareholder, this kind of thing is not good.” Ballmer and Gates are two of the 12 wealthiest people in the world thanks to their Microsoft fortunes.
C-suites may not be able to stay quiet for long, especially if the recent turmoil spills into next week.
Lise Buyer, who previously helped guide Google through its IPO and now works as an adviser to companies going public, said there’s no appetite for risk in the market under these conditions. But there is risk that staffers get jittery, and they’ll surely look to their leaders for some reassurance.
“Until markets settle out and we have the opportunity to access valuation levels, public company CEOs should work to calm potentially distressed employees,” Buyer said in an email. “And private company managements should refine plans to get by on dollars already in the treasury.”
— CNBC’s Hayden Field, Jordan Novet, Leslie Picker, Annie Palmer and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.
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