Apple CEO Tim Cook visits China, calls DeepSeek AI ‘excellent’

Apple CEO Tim Cook

Apple Intelligence — the company’s AI feature set — is still not available in China. Reports have suggested that Apple has to partner with a local company to bring Apple Intelligence in the country. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is currently in China to attend China Development Forum, was asked about DeepSeek AI — the most recent Chinese AI model. According to a report by South China Morning Post, Cook didn’t elaborate much on DeepSeek AI when asked about it by the local media and whether he had tried it. Cook said that he had and it was “excellent.”

When DeepSeek was launched in China in January, it quickly climbed up the charts to become the number one downloaded app on Apple App Store.

The same month, during Apple’s investors’ call, Cook had said about DeepSeek AI that “innovation that drives efficiency is a good thing”.

Meanwhile, on his current visit to China, Cook also revealed Apple’s substantial — $99 million — investment to China’s Clean Energy Fund. “We’re proud to announce a new clean energy fund in China! Two thirds of our supply chain here is already running on renewable energy and this will help further our goal of running on 100% renewable energy by 2030,” Cook said in a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo.