Apple Boss Hails ‘Next Generation of Developers’ on China Visit 

Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the opening ceremony of the China Development Forum at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on March 23, 2025. (AFP)
Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the opening ceremony of the China Development Forum at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on March 23, 2025. (AFP)
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Apple Boss Hails ‘Next Generation of Developers’ on China Visit 

Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the opening ceremony of the China Development Forum at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on March 23, 2025. (AFP)
Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the opening ceremony of the China Development Forum at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on March 23, 2025. (AFP)

Apple boss Tim Cook on Wednesday praised "the next generation of developers" during a visit to a technology hub in eastern China, as the US tech giant battles to stay relevant in the country's vast consumer market.

The iPhone maker last year lost its status as the best-selling smartphone brand in China, but has sought to boost its ties to the country in recent months.

"Thrilled to meet the next generation of developers at Zhejiang University today," Cook said Wednesday in a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo that included a video of him interacting with students.

The post came as Apple announced it would donate 30 million yuan ($4.1 million) to the college to provide students with technical and business training in app development.

Based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang University is known for producing elite tech talent including Liang Wenfeng, the founder of AI startup DeepSeek.

The company stunned the world this year with a model chatbot that seemed able to match the performance of US rivals at a fraction of the cost.

Cook met China's commerce minister Wang Wentao on the sidelines of a key development forum in Beijing on Monday, with the ministry saying they "exchanged views on Apple's business development in China, China-US economic and trade ties and other topics".

In February, Chinese ecommerce titan Alibaba said it would supply AI technology to power Apple's iPhones in China.



Musk’s Social Media Firm X Bought by His AI Company, Valued at $33 Billion

 xAI and X logos are seen in this illustration taken, March 28, 2025. (Reuters)
xAI and X logos are seen in this illustration taken, March 28, 2025. (Reuters)
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Musk’s Social Media Firm X Bought by His AI Company, Valued at $33 Billion

 xAI and X logos are seen in this illustration taken, March 28, 2025. (Reuters)
xAI and X logos are seen in this illustration taken, March 28, 2025. (Reuters)

Elon Musk's xAI has acquired X in a deal that values the social media platform at $33 billion and allows the value of his artificial intelligence firm to be shared with his co-investors in the company formerly known as Twitter.

The deal could also help xAI's ability to train its chatbot known as Grok.

"xAI and X's futures are intertwined," Musk, who also heads automaker Tesla and SpaceX, wrote in a post on X: "Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent."

He said the combination values "xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt)".

Representatives for X and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Much of the deal's specifics remain unclear, such as how X's leaders would be integrated in the new firm or whether there would be regulatory scrutiny.

Musk, the world's wealthiest man, is also a close ally of US President Donald Trump and heads the Department of Government Efficiency.

D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said the price tag for X of $45 billion when debt was included was not a coincidence. "It is $1 billion higher than the take-private transaction for Twitter in 2022."

An investor in xAI who declined to be identified said they were not surprised by the deal, viewing it as Musk consolidating his leadership and management at his own companies.

Musk did not ask investors for approval but told them that the two companies had been collaborating closely and the deal would drive deeper integration with Grok, the investor said.

OPENAI RIVALRY

Musk's xAI startup was launched less than two years ago and recently raised $10 billion in a funding round that valued the company at $75 billion, according to a media report.

It competes with the likes of Microsoft-backed OpenAI as well as with Chinese startup DeepSeek.

In February, Musk, 53, made a $97.4 billion bid with a consortium for OpenAI, which was rejected and he has sued to prevent the ChatGPT maker from converting from a non-profit to a for-profit business. A judge this month denied Musk's request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent the changeover.

As competition in AI intensifies, xAI has been ramping up its data center capacity to train more advanced models, and its supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee, called "Colossus," is touted as the largest in the world.

xAI introduced Grok-3, the latest iteration of its chatbot, in February.

The X platform could serve to further distribute xAI products, while also providing a real-time feed of users' musings, screenshots and other data.

After buying Twitter, Musk gutted the company's workforce, prompting advertisers to flee the platform and a rapid decline in revenue. Recently, brands have been returning to X as Musk's influence in the Trump administration grows.

The seven banks that extended $13 billion in loans to Musk to buy X kept the debt on their books for two years until they were able to sell it all at once last month, according to a source familiar with the transactions.

This was made possible after a surge in investor interest for exposure to AI companies along with X's improved operating performance over the previous two quarters, among other factors, according to two people familiar with the matter.

After the merger, investors who bought the debt from the banks will profit, said Espen Robak, founder of Pluris Valuation Advisors, which specializes in illiquid assets. "For sure the debt is worth more now, if not fully paid off."

Separately, a US judge on Friday rejected a bid by Musk to dismiss a lawsuit claiming he had defrauded former Twitter shareholders by waiting too long to disclose his initial investment in the company.