Trump’s AI lunch included everyone but Apple

When President Donald Trump gathered executives from the world’s most powerful technology companies at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the future of artificial intelligence, one company was conspicuously absent. apple.

Neither Chairman Tim Cook nor his successor, CEO John Ternus, attended, but leaders from other tech giants and a number of other companies had lunch with Trump.

Apple did not respond to CNBC’s questions about the meeting, nor did the White House.

There was speculation on social media that Apple was not invited because it was lagging behind in the AI ​​field.

Brad Gerstner, CEO of Altimeter Capital, a leading Silicon Valley investor and ally of Mr. Trump in his second term, called Apple’s absence a “nothing burger” in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.

“I guarantee you, they’ve read all of this and I think they agree with all of it,” Gerstner said.

Gerstner noted that Cook, Apple’s public face to government officials around the world, was at the White House less than a week ago to attend President Trump’s state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Mr. Cook stepped down as Apple’s CEO in September, handing the baton to Mr. Tarnas, a hardware expert.

As part of the transition, Apple said Cook will continue to serve as the company’s executive chairman and work on “engaging with policymakers around the world.” His new role was highlighted at a state dinner with President Xi last week.

Mr. Cook has spent many years trying to maintain a good relationship with Mr. Trump. He has appeared in public more than a dozen times at events during the president’s second term, including Trump’s inauguration, the Oval Office, Davos and state dinners on multiple continents. I attended a screening of “Melania” at the White House.

Throughout his interactions with Trump over the past two years, Cook has continued to focus his messages on Apple’s manufacturing interests and trade issues at a time when his products could be subject to tariffs. The company has delivered victories for the Trump administration on issues such as U.S. investment and jobs, while trying to fend off the president’s long-held desire to manufacture iPhones in the United States.

Recently, due to rising prices around the world, Apple is reportedly exploring the use of Chinese-made memory chips, but that would require a license. “The Trump administration is not in favor of this,” Commerce Secretary Lutnick said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Gerstner said in an interview with CNBC that the luncheon participants are companies that are “really pushing the frontiers of model development.”

It’s not Apple.

The iPhone maker’s own models are smaller and more efficient than so-called “frontier” models developed by OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. Apple Foundation models are primarily designed to run on Apple’s proprietary silicon inside iPhones and Mac computers. Although they run parts of Siri, OpenAI and Anthropic’s models use large amounts of data. NvidiaCluster of base chips.

Although Apple is a consumer company, most of Frontier Labs’ AI competition is internal. Partnered with Apple google to develop that model. Its capital expenditures are tiny compared to Google’s total. microsoft, metaand Amazon We are making investments.

Some investors worry that Apple is lagging in AI, but the market increasingly sees Apple as a hedge against other capital-intensive technology companies. And the company just announced a new AI-powered Siri, which received mostly positive reviews.

Apple’s stock is up 22.5% so far in 2026, outpacing the Nasdaq and nearly every mega-cap stock except Nvidia, which is up about the same amount.

Although Apple has touted the power of AI and its role in the future of technology, its executives have largely missed the public debate over AI safety and collaboration, which was a major topic of discussion at Trump’s luncheon.

No one at Apple has written a long manifesto like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, etc.

As part of Tuesday’s meeting with President Trump, the White House and major AI companies signed an agreement that commits industry players to a range of safety measures. After the meeting, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI COO Greg Brockman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei all signed the document.

Cook has said in recent years that Apple is likely to weigh in publicly on policies that “intersect with our company in some way.” Apple hasn’t addressed the throttling issue with Frontier.

“If it’s not intersectional, if it’s something where we don’t just have another voice and a unique perspective, then we don’t say anything,” Cook said in a 2021 Dealbook interview.

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