Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., center, arrives at Apple Developer Academy at Binus University in Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia, on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple’s Tim Cook is in Singapore for the latest leg of his whirlwind tour around Southeast Asia as the CEO pivots toward the region for expansion and sales growth amid struggles in China.
Cook confirmed his arrival in Singapore on his official X (formerly known as Twitter) account Thursday, posting a video of himself with a local photographer at the city’s famous Gardens by the Bay tourist attraction.
According to anonymous sources cited in a Bloomberg report, Cook’s visit will last until Friday and include a meeting with the city-state’s next prime minister, Lawrence Wong, as well as incumbent Lee Hsien Loong. Lee will formally step down on May 15 after 20 years as the head of government. Wong will become Singapore’s fourth prime minister.
Cook’s arrival in the city follows Apple’s announcement of plans to invest over $250 million into its operations in Singapore. While the tech giant already employs 3,600 people in the country, Apple said the expansion will provide space for new roles, including in artificial intelligence.
The country serves as a regional hub for the Cupertino, California-based tech giant, with critical roles in software, hardware, services and support, the company said.
The meeting with the prime minister is expected to conclude Cook’s tour around Southeast Asia that saw the CEO make stops in Vietnam to meet with Apple developers and users, and Indonesia, where he met with President Joko Widodo.
Bloomberg reported that Cook’s schedule was packed with public activities to generate interest in the brand, which could pave the way for a more aggressive regional sales campaign.
Apple did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment about Cook’s itinerary.
This year, the company launched an online Apple Store in Vietnam and has reportedly been hiring for its first retail center in Malaysia.
Increased business in Southeast Asia could help offset the company’s recent headwinds. Figures released Monday by the International Data Corporation showed global iPhone shipments fell 10% from a year ago in the first quarter amid increased competition in China.
Smartphone sales in China, Apple’s largest overseas market, have also been in a lull compared to Southeast Asia, where sales were booming at the start of the year.
The region’s phone market is forecasted to grow 7% year-over-year in 2024, much faster than a 3% rate for the rest of the world, according to data from Canalys.
Cook has also used his latest travels to highlight Southeast Asia as an important manufacturing hub.
The company has pushed to diversify its supply chain beyond its base in China since 2022, when it experienced pandemic-related supply disruptions.
Vietnam has already become a key manufacturing location amid diversification efforts. Meanwhile, Cook said on Wednesday that the company will “look at” manufacturing in Indonesia.
The logo of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin can be seen on a coin in front of a Bitcoin chart.
Silas Stein | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Bitcoin hit a fresh record on Wednesday afternoon as an Nvidia-led rally in equities helped push the price of the cryptocurrency higher into the stock market close.
The price of bitcoin was last up 1.9%, trading at $110,947.49, according to Coin Metrics. Just before 4:00 p.m. ET, it hit a high of $112,052.24, surpassing its May 22 record of $111,999.
The flagship cryptocurrency has been trading in a tight range for several weeks despite billions of dollars flowing into bitcoin exchange traded funds. Bitcoin purchases by public companies outpaced ETF inflows in the second quarter. Still, bitcoin is up just 2% in the past month.
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Bitcoin climbs above $112,000
On Wednesday, tech stocks rallied as Nvidia became the first company to briefly touch $4 trillion in market capitalization. In the same session, investors appeared to shrug off the latest tariff developments from President Donald Trump. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite notched a record close.
While institutions broadly have embraced bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative, it is still a risk asset that rises and falls alongside stocks depending on what’s driving investor sentiment. When the market is in risk-on mode and investors buy growth-oriented assets like tech stocks, bitcoin and crypto tend to rally with them.
Investors have been expecting bitcoin to reach new records in the second half of the year as corporate treasuries accelerate their bitcoin buying sprees and Congress gets closer to passing crypto legislation.
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Perplexity AI on Wednesday launched a new artificial intelligence-powered web browser called Comet in the startup’s latest effort to compete in the consumer internet market against companies like Google and Microsoft.
Comet will allow users to connect with enterprise applications like Slack and ask complex questions via voice and text, according to a brief demo video Perplexity released on Wednesday.
The browser is available to Perplexity Max subscribers, and the company said invite-only access will roll out to a waitlist over the summer. Perplexity Max costs users $200 per month.
“We built Comet to let the internet do what it has been begging to do: to amplify our intelligence,” Perplexity wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine that gives users simple answers to questions and links out to the original source material on the web. After the company was accused of plagiarizing content from media outlets, it launched a revenue-sharing model with publishers last year.
In May, Perplexity was in late-stage talks to raise $500 million at a $14 billion valuation, a source familiar confirmed to CNBC. The startup was also approached by Meta earlier this year about a potential acquisition, but the companies did not finalize a deal.
“We will continue to launch new features and functionality for Comet, improve experiences based on your feedback, and focus relentlessly–as we always have–on building accurate and trustworthy AI that fuels human curiosity,” Perplexity said Wednesday.
A worker sorts packages on Amazon Prime Day in New York on July 8, 2025.
Klaus Galiano | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. online sales jumped 9.9% year over year to $7.9 billion on Tuesday, the kickoff of Amazon‘s Prime Day megasale, according to Adobe Analytics.
At that level, it marks the “single biggest e-commerce day so far this year,” Adobe said. It also eclipsed total online spending during Thanksgiving last year, when sales on the holiday reached $6.1 billion.
Amazon’s Prime Day bargain blitz began on Tuesday and lasts through Friday. The event, first launched in 2015 as a way to hook new Prime members, has pushed other retailers to launch counterprogramming.
Home and outdoor goods showed signs of strong demand during the first day of Amazon’s discount event, said Kashif Zafar, CEO of Xnurta, an advertising platform that serves more than 20,000 online businesses.
Read more CNBC Amazon coverage
Other historically well-performing categories such as beauty and household essentials saw softer demand early on, but could see demand pick up as Prime Day continues, he added.
“Early Prime Day numbers might look soft compared to last year’s surge, but it’s too early to call the event a miss,” Zafar said in an email. “With four days instead of two, we’re seeing a different rhythm, consumers are spreading out their purchases.”
Adobe expects online sales to reach $23.8 billion across all retailers during the 96-hour event, a level that’s “equivalent to two Black Fridays.”
U.S. online shoppers spent $14.2 billion during the 48-hour Prime Day event last year, according to Adobe.
This year’s Prime Day is landing at an uncertain time for retailers and consumers as they grapple with the fallout of President Donald Trump‘s unpredictable tariff policies.
U.S. consumer confidence worsened in June after improving in May as Americans remained concerned about the tariffs’ effect on the economy and prices, according to the Conference Board.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month the company hasn’t seen prices “appreciably go up” on its site as a result of tariffs.
Some third-party sellers previously told CNBC they were considering raising or had already raised the price of some of their products manufactured in China as the cost of tariffs became burdensome.