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Apple forms data-processing venture in Shanghai amidst ongoing efforts to introduce AI offerings in mainland China
Apple has formed a data-processing venture in Shanghai, amidst the company’s ongoing efforts to clear the way for the launch of its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings in China, the world’s biggest smartphone market.
Apple Technology Development (Shanghai) was formed on Friday with a registered capital of $35 million (£29m), according to data from Chinese business registry platform Tianyancha cited in local media reports.
The organisation is to focus on software development, big data services, storage services and data processing, Tianyancha said.
The legal representative of the new company is Tejas Kirit Gala, who also heads Apple’s other China-based organisations, and it is wholly owned by Apple South Asia, according to Tianyancha data.
AI launch
The move comes as Apple continues to await regulatory approval for the launch of its AI services in China, a key market where it faces increased competition from domestic smartphone makers including Huawei Technologies.
Apple has not yet formed a relationship with a domestic partner for the AI offerings, a regulatory requirement.
In December the company was said to be in early talks with Tencent Holdings and ByteDance over such a partnership, Reuters reported.
Those talks took place before the US Department of Defense this month added Tencent to a blacklist designating it as a supplier to China’s military, something Tencent denies.
While the Pentagon’s move does not entail immediate sanctions, it could create uncertainty around a potential Apple partnership with the company.
Earlier in December Apple was reported to have been holding talks with search giant Baidu, which is also a major AI developer, but progress was slow due to disputes over access to user data and inaccurate responses to user queries, according to a report from The Information.
Competition
The share of foreign smartphone brands on the Chinese mainland, led by Apple, has declined by nearly half from a year ago as domestic producers gain popularity, the state-run China Academy of Information and Communications Technology said this month.
Foreign handset makers shipped 3.04 million units in China in November 2024, down 47.3 percent from 5.77 million for the same period a year earlier, the academy said.
Earlier this month Apple began offering rare discounts on its latest iPhone models in China in an effort to shore up flagging sales.
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