Tim Cook visits Singapore amid Apple’s Southeast Asia expansion efforts

Published

2 years ago

April 18, 2024

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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.

Apple CEO Tim Cook visits Vietnam — here's why

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.

Technology

China suspends some critical mineral export curbs to the U.S. as trade truce takes hold

Published

3 hours ago

November 10, 2025

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China suspends some critical mineral export curbs to the U.S. as trade truce takes hold

Crystals of gallium are seen in a laboratory at Freiberg University of Mining and Technology in Saxony, Germany on 13 September 2023.

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China has rolled back a number of restrictions on its export of critical minerals and rare earth materials to the United States, in a sign that a trade truce between the world’s two largest economies is holding.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Friday that it would suspend some export controls on critical minerals used in military hardware, semiconductors and other high-tech industries for a year.

The suspended restrictions, first imposed on Oct. 9, include limits on the export of certain rare earth elements, lithium battery materials, and processing technologies.

The export relaxations follow talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30.

Beijing also reversed retaliatory curbs on exports of gallium, germanium, antimony and other so-called super-hard materials such as synthetic diamonds and boron nitrides. Those measures, introduced in December 2024, were widely seen as retaliation for Washington’s expanded semiconductor export restrictions on China.

China classifies such materials as “dual-use items,” meaning they can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

Beyond military applications, these critical minerals are used across the semiconductor industry and other high-tech sectors — sectors at the heart of U.S.-China trade tensions.

Beijing has also suspended the stricter end-user and end-use verification checks for exports of dual-use graphite to the U.S., which were imposed in December 2024 alongside the broader export ban.

China dominates global production of most critical minerals and rare earth elements and has increasingly used its export policies as leverage in trade disputes.

As part of the latest China-U.S. trade deal, the U.S. has agreed to several concessions, including lowering tariffs on Chinese imports by 10 percentage points, and suspending Trump’s heightened “reciprocal tariffs” on Chinese imports until Nov. 10, 2026.

The U.S. will also postpone a rule announced Sept. 29 that would have blacklisted majority-owned subsidiaries of Chinese companies on its entity list.

Technology

CNBC Daily Open: Too early to fret about tech pullback?

Published

6 hours ago

November 10, 2025

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CNBC Daily Open: Too early to fret about tech pullback?

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on November 07, 2025 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

November is historically the best month for the S&P 500, which gains an average of 1.8% during the period, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

But the first full trading week of the month saw stocks caught in November rains.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost more than 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed around 3% — that’s its largest weekly loss since the tech-heavy index slumped 10% in the week ended April 4.

A few months ago, tariffs were the shadows that stalked stocks. Now, it’s fears that artificial intelligence-related stocks are trading at prices disconnected from what the firms are actually worth.

“You’ve got trillions of dollars tied up in seven stocks, for example. So, it’s inevitable, with that kind of concentration, that there will be a worry about, ‘You know, when will this bubble burst?‘” CEO of DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, Tan Su Shan told CNBC.

Goldman Sachs’ CEO David Solomon also thinks choppy waters might be ahead.

“It’s likely there’ll be a 10 to 20% drawdown in equity markets sometime in the next 12 to 24 months,” Solomon said Tuesday at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in Hong Kong.

That said, a pullback isn’t necessarily bad for stocks. It could even present “buying opportunities” for investors, according to Glen Smith, chief investment officer at GDS Wealth Management.

After all, earnings have been “reassuring” despite worries about tech stocks’ high valuations, Kiran Ganesh, multi-asset strategist at UBS, told CNBC. That means the rain might not last and the rally could find a way to run a little longer.

— CNBC’s Lee Ying Shan, Hugh Leask and Lim Hui Jie contributed to this report.

What you need to know today

Major U.S. index were mixed Friday stateside. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up more than 0.1%, but the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.21% lower. The pan-European Stoxx 600 lost 0.55%. U.S. futures rose Sunday evening stateside.

China consumer prices pick up in October. The consumer price index, released Sunday, showed a 0.2% growth year on year. It beats analysts’ expectations of zero growth and is the first month since June that prices rose.

U.S. government on track to end shutdown. Enough Democratic senators had agreed to vote for a deal that would fund the U.S. government through the end of January, a person familiar with the deal told CNBC.

Another missed jobs report. The ongoing U.S. government shutdown — which is now the longest ever — means the Bureau of Labor Statistics couldn’t release its monthly employment data. Here’s what economists would have expected the report to show.

[PRO] Stocks that could bounce after sell-off. Using CNBC Pro’s stock screener tool, we found several names that are oversold, according to their 14-day relative strength index. This implies they could be due for a recovery in prices.

And finally…

Fluxfactory | E+ | Getty Images

A global wealth boom is fueling a rise in family office imposters

Fundraisers and fraudsters are presenting themselves as family office representatives, seeking to dupe gullible investors — and then there are also imposters who are in it just for an “ego boost,” several industry veterans told CNBC.

An information vacuum seems to have encouraged imposters. In many markets, genuine single family offices, or SFOs, are exempt from registering so long as they manage only family money. That privacy norm often makes verification hard, said industry experts.

— Lee Ying Shan