U.S. President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook react as U.S. Vice President JD Vance stands next to them on the day they present Apple’s announcement of a $100 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 6, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Asalesperson speaks to a customer at an Apple reseller store in Mumbai, India.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Apple CEO Tim Cook will donate $1 million (approximately Rs 8.57 crore) to US President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, sources familiar with the matter have said. Mr Cook views the inauguration as an American tradition and is donating in the spirit of unity, reported Axios.

The two had several meetings throughout President Trump’s first term and a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month. Following the November 2024 US presidential election, The Wall Street Journal reported about Mr Cook’s efforts to build a personal rapport with Trump over the years. The report stated that the Apple CEO developed a unique approach for meetings with the 78-year-old leader, bringing just one key data point to focus on a single issue. “That approach helped keep the meetings from spiralling in too many directions,” the report added.

Mr Cook’s connection with Trump dates back to 2019, when he gifted the then-president a Mac Pro computer, valued at $5,999 (around Rs 5.14 lakh), assembled in an Apple factory in Austin, Texas. They have also met a few times, including at Trump Tower and his Bedminster, New Jersey, club.

Trump’s upcoming inauguration is receiving substantial backing from high-profile donors. Among the contributors from Silicon Valley are Amazon, Meta, Uber and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Amazon, Meta and OpenAI have all pledged $1 million, while Uber has committed $2 million. Some of these donations are being made by the companies’ CEOs personally rather than through corporate channels.

In addition to tech giants, the automotive industry has shown strong support. Toyota has pledged $1 million, following similar commitments from Ford and General Motors.

Wall Street has also stepped in, with Goldman Sachs and Bank Of America among the seven-figure donors, while cryptocurrency exchanges Kraken and Coinbase have also made significant contributions.

The donations to Trump’s inauguration are expected to surpass those raised for President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. Axios states that this could reflect a belief among companies that Trump’s leadership style is more transactional, and they hope that supporting his inauguration will improve their prospects as his new term begins.

Apple CEO Tim Cook starts his day between 4 and 5 a.m. by checking his iPhone for emails and overnight sales reports. Given that he receives over 800 emails daily, including feedback from Apple customers, keeping up with them all is a challenge.

To manage this, Mr Cook, 64, uses Apple’s latest AI tool, Apple Intelligence, which provides brief summaries of his emails. This feature automatically generates short overviews under each email in the Mail app, streamlining his inbox. “If I can save time here and there, it adds up over a day, a week, or a month,” Mr Cook told the Wall Street Journal Magazine, adding, “It’s changed my life. It really has.”

Mr Cook isn’t the only billionaire using AI to tackle an overflowing inbox. Entrepreneur and Shark Tank judge Mark Cuban also relies on AI for email management. Mr Cuban, who receives thousands of emails daily-many of them repetitive-uses Google’s generative AI assistant and suggested replies in Gmail, calling it “the ultimate time-saving hack.”

“It’s reduced the need for me to write out routine replies,” Mr Cuban told CNBC Make It. “I can spend 30 seconds evaluating its response and hit ‘send’ versus typing it all out myself.” With AI handling his routine messages, Mr Cuban said he can dedicate more time to strategic tasks, enhancing his productivity and effectiveness as a leader.

“I’ll use different generative AI tools to edit my kids’ homework assignments for spelling and grammar mistakes, which has helped me a lot as a parent,” he added. “And to make sure they’re not using AI to write their papers.”

 

Apple chief Tim Cook is visiting China. This is the second time that Cook has visited the Asian giant this year. 

Apple operates at the frontiers of technology to create electronic products that are so well-crafted and aspirational that die-hard fans turn sidewalks near Apple stores into campsites ahead of new product arrivals. They have catapulted it to become the world’s most valuable company with a market capitalisation of $3.5 trillion, the same as India’s GDP in 2023. 

Cook’s visit is intriguing and important because Apple is an American native. And the US-China rivalry, especially in cutting-edge science and technology, is irrevocably shaping the 21st century. Bloomberg reported China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong asking Cook to invest in innovation, a sensitive subject in Washington, which wants to slow Beijing’s tech march. The superpower competition is so intense that analysts sometimes speculate that it could spiral into war. Yet, the Apple chief vowed to “continue to grow its investments in China and help the high-quality development of the supply chain”. 

China Remains Un-Bypassable

Apple’s overtures show how China, unlike India, remains an un-bypassable economy for global corporations. Which is why it is Apple that is wooing China, not the other way round. How the latter built itself up into a global manufacturing hub is well-documented and India is trying to emulate it in its own way. However, its ability to leverage market and production capacity access to learn and grow with the best in the world is severely limited. 

For instance, Cook considered China so important, both as a manufacturing hub and market, that the company signed a secret deal in 2016 to invest $275 billion locally, including billion-dollar infusions in Chinese startups such as Didi. The Chinese government barely gave any concessions as Apple was fighting off a regulatory onslaught with the olive branch of investment. The pact was an unqualified success. Apple raked in the moolah as it rode the country’s economic boom and citizens’ prosperity. It became the phonemaker’s largest market outside the US, bringing in $378 billion in revenues between 2016 and 2022 even as it helped Chinese companies upgrade their technological capabilities.

In comparison, India bent over backwards to woo iPhone and iPad makers to set up shop here. It slashed import duties on components while keeping out finished products with high levies. This has now led to a situation where an iPhone made in India is cheaper in Dubai compared to Delhi. An iPhone 16 with a memory of 128GB costs about Rs 78,000 in a Dubai Mal,  while it costs Rs 89,000 at the shiny Apple retail store in Delhi that Cook personally flew down to last year and flagged off. It took no time for the arbitrage to spawn a smuggling racket. 

India’s Tortuous Duty Structures

iPhone smuggling may not cause much damage to the exchequer, but warped duty structures and perverse incentives distort the market so much that larger national objectives and development agenda are crumbling. Protectionist tariffs have stunted the growth and innovation in the solar industry. As this three-part series shows, India’s renewable energy programme is weighing heavily on the finances of electricity distribution companies, ordinary consumers, and, ultimately, taxpayers. State-owned public distribution companies have accumulated losses of Rs 6.77 lakh crore. 

Indian solar energy firms find it more profitable to import photovoltaic cells from China and assemble modules to ship to other markets as well as sell to local users. High import duties on modules but low levies on cells ensure wide margins for module makers and high costs for power distributors and end consumers.  

Relying On Just Arbitrage

Such policies also have wider, unintended consequences. For instance, small manufacturers (read assemblers) use imported Chinese components in white-labelled goods and own brands to sell in regional markets. One such Maharashtra-based entrepreneur with a topline of about Rs 75 crore says that his products enjoy good margins and give bigger companies a run for their money. He keeps costs low by managing sales, operations, procurement and logistics, all by himself. Levies are fickle and an upward revision will squeeze margins and he does not want to risk raising costs by hiring specialists. That means the basis of his success is neither technological innovation nor organisational efficiency but arbitrage. It also means the duty structure intended to boost local manufacturing and job creation is merely promoting product assembly while generating few jobs. 

Earlier this month, the Tata Group-owned plant in Tamil Nadu that makes back panels for older models of the iPhone caught fire. The unit is the only producer of the critical component, forcing iPhone maker Foxconn as well as the Tata Group (it assembles older models at another unit) to source the parts from China to meet global demand in peak festival season. Bloomberg reports that business was a key factor even in achieving a breakthrough in India-China border talks.

Why China Is Pacing Ahead

When Cook signed the secret deal in 2016, Apple vowed to localise component sourcing and stitch up deals with Chinese software firms, collaborate on technology with Chinese universities and directly invest in Chinese tech companies until 2022. It also committed to building research and development centres and renewable energy projects, The Information reported in 2021.

To be sure, Apple was not the only US company to sign such a deal. Microsoft and Cisco signed similar deals that helped local R&D and innovation. The ecosystem they helped build no doubt contributed to bolstering the technological prowess of Chinese manufacturing. But, meanwhile, homegrown companies also developed their own expertise and breakthroughs. 

Chinese scientists have already built an electrolyzer that can directly split seawater to produce hydrogen. A Beijing-based energy startup Betavolt claimed in January this year that it had built a commercially viable coin-sized nuclear battery that can power a mobile phone for 50 years. In 2023, the number of SMEs producing new and unique products using special and sophisticated technologies exceeded 70,000, according to the Report on the Work of the Government presented at the 14th National People’s Congress. To compare, the number of technology SMEs in India is just over 10,000, as per Nasscom. Most of them are in software and do work for larger firms. This is not to say that there are no Indian companies doing advanced research and innovation. But they are few and far between, and are often starved of capital. Tata Sons at 207 is the only Indian company in the 2024 Patent 300 list, an annual global ranking of innovators. 

Indian Firms Need To Value Innovation

China offers liberal tax incentives to manufacturing companies and SMEs if they invest in R&D. India, too, offers tax breaks up to 150%, but it’s mainly used by Global Capacity Centres (GCC) of foreign companies because even large Indian firms rarely foster a culture of innovation. The R&D tax break is one of the reasons, apart from the availability of cheap, high-quality talent, for the mushrooming of GCCs (over 1,600 now) in India. The knowledge and patents created, however, do not belong here. 

Indian planning often tends to be short-termist. The government needs to holistically reassess its incentive structures to make the local industry truly independent and competitive in the long run. 

(Dinesh Narayanan is a Delhi-based journalist and author of ‘The RSS And The Making Of The Deep Nation’.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Apple chief Tim Cook is visiting China. This is the second time that Cook has visited the Asian giant this year. 

Apple operates at the frontiers of technology to create electronic products that are so well-crafted and aspirational that die-hard fans turn sidewalks near Apple stores into campsites ahead of new product arrivals. They have catapulted it to become the world’s most valuable company with a market capitalisation of $3.5 trillion, the same as India’s GDP in 2023. 

Cook’s visit is intriguing and important because Apple is an American native. And the US-China rivalry, especially in cutting-edge science and technology, is irrevocably shaping the 21st century. Bloomberg reported China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong asking Cook to invest in innovation, a sensitive subject in Washington, which wants to slow Beijing’s tech march. The superpower competition is so intense that analysts sometimes speculate that it could spiral into war. Yet, the Apple chief vowed to “continue to grow its investments in China and help the high-quality development of the supply chain”. 

China Remains Un-Bypassable

Apple’s overtures show how China, unlike India, remains an un-bypassable economy for global corporations. Which is why it is Apple that is wooing China, not the other way round. How the latter built itself up into a global manufacturing hub is well-documented and India is trying to emulate it in its own way. However, its ability to leverage market and production capacity access to learn and grow with the best in the world is severely limited. 

For instance, Cook considered China so important, both as a manufacturing hub and market, that the company signed a secret deal in 2016 to invest $275 billion locally, including billion-dollar infusions in Chinese startups such as Didi. The Chinese government barely gave any concessions as Apple was fighting off a regulatory onslaught with the olive branch of investment. The pact was an unqualified success. Apple raked in the moolah as it rode the country’s economic boom and citizens’ prosperity. It became the phonemaker’s largest market outside the US, bringing in $378 billion in revenues between 2016 and 2022 even as it helped Chinese companies upgrade their technological capabilities.

In comparison, India bent over backwards to woo iPhone and iPad makers to set up shop here. It slashed import duties on components while keeping out finished products with high levies. This has now led to a situation where an iPhone made in India is cheaper in Dubai compared to Delhi. An iPhone 16 with a memory of 128GB costs about Rs 78,000 in a Dubai Mal,  while it costs Rs 89,000 at the shiny Apple retail store in Delhi that Cook personally flew down to last year and flagged off. It took no time for the arbitrage to spawn a smuggling racket. 

India’s Tortuous Duty Structures

iPhone smuggling may not cause much damage to the exchequer, but warped duty structures and perverse incentives distort the market so much that larger national objectives and development agenda are crumbling. Protectionist tariffs have stunted the growth and innovation in the solar industry. As this three-part series shows, India’s renewable energy programme is weighing heavily on the finances of electricity distribution companies, ordinary consumers, and, ultimately, taxpayers. State-owned public distribution companies have accumulated losses of Rs 6.77 lakh crore. 

Indian solar energy firms find it more profitable to import photovoltaic cells from China and assemble modules to ship to other markets as well as sell to local users. High import duties on modules but low levies on cells ensure wide margins for module makers and high costs for power distributors and end consumers.  

Relying On Just Arbitrage

Such policies also have wider, unintended consequences. For instance, small manufacturers (read assemblers) use imported Chinese components in white-labelled goods and own brands to sell in regional markets. One such Maharashtra-based entrepreneur with a topline of about Rs 75 crore says that his products enjoy good margins and give bigger companies a run for their money. He keeps costs low by managing sales, operations, procurement and logistics, all by himself. Levies are fickle and an upward revision will squeeze margins and he does not want to risk raising costs by hiring specialists. That means the basis of his success is neither technological innovation nor organisational efficiency but arbitrage. It also means the duty structure intended to boost local manufacturing and job creation is merely promoting product assembly while generating few jobs. 

Earlier this month, the Tata Group-owned plant in Tamil Nadu that makes back panels for older models of the iPhone caught fire. The unit is the only producer of the critical component, forcing iPhone maker Foxconn as well as the Tata Group (it assembles older models at another unit) to source the parts from China to meet global demand in peak festival season. Bloomberg reports that business was a key factor even in achieving a breakthrough in India-China border talks.

Why China Is Pacing Ahead

When Cook signed the secret deal in 2016, Apple vowed to localise component sourcing and stitch up deals with Chinese software firms, collaborate on technology with Chinese universities and directly invest in Chinese tech companies until 2022. It also committed to building research and development centres and renewable energy projects, The Information reported in 2021.

To be sure, Apple was not the only US company to sign such a deal. Microsoft and Cisco signed similar deals that helped local R&D and innovation. The ecosystem they helped build no doubt contributed to bolstering the technological prowess of Chinese manufacturing. But, meanwhile, homegrown companies also developed their own expertise and breakthroughs. 

Chinese scientists have already built an electrolyzer that can directly split seawater to produce hydrogen. A Beijing-based energy startup Betavolt claimed in January this year that it had built a commercially viable coin-sized nuclear battery that can power a mobile phone for 50 years. In 2023, the number of SMEs producing new and unique products using special and sophisticated technologies exceeded 70,000, according to the Report on the Work of the Government presented at the 14th National People’s Congress. To compare, the number of technology SMEs in India is just over 10,000, as per Nasscom. Most of them are in software and do work for larger firms. This is not to say that there are no Indian companies doing advanced research and innovation. But they are few and far between, and are often starved of capital. Tata Sons at 207 is the only Indian company in the 2024 Patent 300 list, an annual global ranking of innovators. 

Indian Firms Need To Value Innovation

China offers liberal tax incentives to manufacturing companies and SMEs if they invest in R&D. India, too, offers tax breaks up to 150%, but it’s mainly used by Global Capacity Centres (GCC) of foreign companies because even large Indian firms rarely foster a culture of innovation. The R&D tax break is one of the reasons, apart from the availability of cheap, high-quality talent, for the mushrooming of GCCs (over 1,600 now) in India. The knowledge and patents created, however, do not belong here. 

Indian planning often tends to be short-termist. The government needs to holistically reassess its incentive structures to make the local industry truly independent and competitive in the long run. 

(Dinesh Narayanan is a Delhi-based journalist and author of ‘The RSS And The Making Of The Deep Nation’.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

New Delhi:

An Apple watch has saved the life of a 35-year-old woman from Delhi. The woman suffered from Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) – a rapid and abnormal heart rhythm.

Speaking to news agency IANS, Sneha Saha, a policy researcher, said that late in the evening on April 9, she started experiencing a rapid heart rate.

She assumed it to be a panic attack due to stress. She started doing deep breathing exercises and drinking water, but had no respite as the problem persisted.

When the heart palpitations didn’t stop, she wore her Apple watch, to assess her condition. The watch advised her to visit a doctor.

She chose to ignore that too, but around midnight, the Apple watch alerted Sneha to visit a doctor immediately due to extremely high heart rate (230 bpm) and onset of AFib.

Sneha, who lives in Munirka, was then rushed to the Emergency at the nearby Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj, where doctors could not read her pulse.

Assessing her condition further, they had to administer three delivery of direct current (DC) shocks (50 50 100 joules) to revive her heart’s sinus rhythm. Subsequently, she was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

“Had the Apple Watch not alerted me of the serious condition around midnight, I would not have gone to the hospital and would have lost my life,” Sneha told IANS, noting that the watch has now become her “constant companion.”

“I would not have measured my heart rate, had the watch not been there. Whatever I had to say to the doctors was based on Apple Watch readings,” added Sneha, who is on her way to recovery.

The doctors diagnosed her condition to be a type of Tachycardia — an increased heart rate for any reason — which can get triggered by exercise or stress.

After returning home, she wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook on April 23, thanking him and the Apple team “for making such an advanced and precise recording ECG app.”

Within a few hours, he responded: “I am glad you sought the medical attention and treatment you needed. Thanks so much for sharing your story with us.”

“After the harrowing experience, I realised it is very important for us to understand our health, our sleep patterns, our heart rates as we all deal with stress,” Sneha said.

“Smartwatches are a very good way of keeping track of your daily activities, your heart rate,” added the Ph.D. degree holder in Science Policy Studies from the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A picture, featuring Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai dining together, has sparked widespread buzz on social media. The grainy photo, initially believed to be a recent occurrence, has sparked numerous reactions and memes.

Users on X, formerly Twitter, speculated on the nature of the meeting, with some suggesting potential collaborations between the two tech giants. However, it later emerged that the photo was from a  2017 encounter at a Vietnamese restaurant in Palo Alto.

“What do you think Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook are Cooking for us?” a user wrote on X.

What do you think Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook are Cooking for us? pic.twitter.com/wBojjeaATi

— iArgue (@x_ai_a12) March 18, 2024

“Let them cook,” replied another user. 

Let them cook

— Bilawal Sidhu (@bilawalsidhu) March 19, 2024

Someone wrote, “This will be the biggest win-win in the business history. Google will emerge as the likely winner for the GenAI market and Apple will be the primary platform for GenAI access. Can you imagine how capable Macs that are powered with AI will be?”

This will be the biggest win-win in the business history.

Google will emerge as the likely winner for the GenAI market and Apple will be primary platform for GenAI access.

Can you imagine how capable Macs that are powered with AI will be?

— Oguz O. | ???? Capitalist ???? (@thexcapitalist) March 18, 2024

A person came up with some clever puns, stating, “They are cooking something !! Or they PICHing something to COOK.”

They cooking something !!

Or they PICHing something to COOK

( Ik it’s a really bad joke )

— Mr. K (@Mr_K_here) March 18, 2024

“Probably the Google AI going into iPhone discussions,” someone guessed. 

Probably the Google AI going into iPhone discussions.

— Conquests of the Impossible (@Conquestsbook) March 19, 2024

A user chimed in, “Two old guys trying to stay relevant by figuring out this new fangled AI thing.”

Two old guys trying to stay relevant by figuring out this new fangled AI thing.

— fgdhew (@Daniel50007832) March 18, 2024

Meanwhile, someone clarified, “That is an old picture. This was a picture of them eating in Palo Alto a few years ago at this Vietnamese fusion restaurant.”

That is an old picture. This was a picture of them eating in Palo Alto a few years ago at this Vietnamese fusion restaurant

— Tommy Mustache (@MustacheTommy) March 18, 2024

The buzz started after Bloomberg reported that Apple is in advanced negotiations with Google to integrate its Gemini AI models into the iPhone. This potential collaboration aims to improve Apple’s AI capabilities, which have been said to lag behind rivals.

Following the news, Google’s stock price surged by over 6%, while Apple’s saw a rise of up to 2.5%. According to Bloomberg, Apple aims to incorporate Google’s AI technology into its next iOS operating system release, expected later this year. 

This potential collaboration comes amidst an existing search engine partnership between Apple and Google, which has recently come under scrutiny from the US Department of Justice for alleged antitrust violations. Apple has also reportedly explored partnerships with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, for generative AI initiatives. 

While Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised significant AI updates, some observers question the company’s decision to collaborate with external partners for AI advancements. Analysts speculate that a deal with Google could strengthen its position in mobile device AI. The outcome of these negotiations could shape the future of AI technology in the tech industry.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook sold stock worth about $41 million after taxes in his biggest sale in more than two years as the shares of the iPhone maker slide off recent highs.

Tim Cook sold 5,11,000 shares, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. He still has about 3.28 million shares in the Cupertino, California-based company where he’s worked for more than two decades, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The share sale comes after Tim Cook took a rare pay cut of about 40% to $49 million for 2023. As part of the changes to his compensation, his stock awards tied to Apple’s performance will increase to 75% this year from 50% previously.

Other Apple executives also disclosed stock sales, including Senior Vice Presidents Deirdre O’Brien and Katherine Adams, who sold $11.3 million in shares each.

Mr Cook’s last major stock sale was in August 2021, when he sold more than $750 million in Apple stock after completing a decade as CEO. After tax withholdings, he netted about $355 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Apple shares hit an all-time high in July and have since declined more than 12% amid a wider tech selloff. KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. downgraded the stock on Wednesday citing a weaker sales growth outlook. The shares fell about 1.2% in premarket trading before New York exchanges opened.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)