Apple was absent from Trump’s AI luncheon: Apple executives did not participate, foreign media analyzed the reasons

[Financial Channel/Comprehensive Report] U.S. President Trump convened the world's top technology giants for an artificial intelligence luncheon at the White House on Tuesday, and signed an AI security agreement with a number of industry leaders that includes a number of security measures. However, when many technology company leaders gathered together, Apple became the only large technology company that was significantly absent. Neither Chairman Cook nor new CEO Turners attended, which attracted attention from the outside world.

Apple did not respond to CNBC's inquiries about the meeting, and neither did the White House. Various speculations immediately emerged on social media. Some people believed that Apple's failure to be invited was related to its lagging progress in the field of artificial intelligence.

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However, Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" that Apple's absence is "irrelevant." He believes that Apple is very familiar with the current development of the AI ​​industry and may also agree with the relevant views discussed at the luncheon.

Gerstner pointed out that Cook, as Apple's important representative in communicating with government officials around the world, attended the state dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House less than a week ago. Cook stepped down as CEO of Apple in September and was replaced by hardware expert Turners, but Apple also said at the time that Cook would still serve as executive chairman and be responsible for communicating with policymakers around the world.

In fact, Cook has maintained contact with the Trump administration for many years. During Trump's second term, Cook publicly attended relevant events more than ten times, including Trump's inauguration, Oval Office meeting, Davos Forum and multiple state banquets.

The interaction between the two parties also focused on Apple's production, investment, employment and trade issues, especially the tariff issues that products may face. Apple has achieved some results on issues such as investment and employment in the United States, but it continues to face Trump's demands that Apple move more iPhone production back to the United States.

Another focus of this AI luncheon is that most of the participating companies are companies that directly promote the development of cutting-edge AI models, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, Google, Huida, etc. After the meeting, Huida CEO Huang Renxun, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Greg Brockman, Meta CEO Zuckerberg, Google CEO Pichai, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and others all signed the relevant AI security agreement.

In comparison, Apple’s AI strategy is different. Apple's self-developed models are smaller in scale and are mainly designed to run on Apple's self-developed chips inside iPhones and Macs, and some functions are also used in Siri; while cutting-edge models from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic rely on large-scale Huida GPU computing clusters.

Apple itself focuses on consumer electronics, while a considerable part of the AI ​​competition is focused on the enterprise market. Apple is also cooperating with Google to develop related models, and its capital expenditure scale is limited compared to technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon that have invested heavily in AI infrastructure.

Although some investors are worried that Apple is lagging behind in the field of AI, Apple's stock price has risen by 22.5% so far in 2026, outperforming the Nasdaq Index and most large technology stocks except Huida.

In addition, Apple executives have rarely publicly participated in policy debates on AI safety and consistency in the past, and have not issued relevant long declarations like companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Microsoft. In an interview with DealBook in 2021, Cook said that Apple prefers to publicly express policy issues that are related to the company's interests and can provide unique perspectives; if it is just one voice among many, Apple may choose not to speak.

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