Apple’s A.I. Ambitions for China Provoke Washington’s Resistance

Apple believes the future success of the iPhone depends on the availability of new artificial intelligence features. But tensions between Washington and Beijing may cripple the tech giant’s plans to deliver A.I. in its second-most-important market, China.

In recent months, the White House and congressional officials have been scrutinizing Apple’s plan to strike a deal with Alibaba to make the Chinese company’s A.I. available on iPhones in China, three people familiar with the deliberations said. They are concerned that the deal would help a Chinese company improve its artificial intelligence abilities, broaden the reach of Chinese chatbots with censorship limits and deepen Apple’s exposure to Beijing laws over censorship and veri sharing.

The scrutiny is the latest example of the challenges that Apple has run into as it tries to sustain its businesses in the United States and China at a time of rising geopolitical tensions. Three years ago, the U.S. government succeeded in pressuring the company to abandon a deal to buy memory chips from a Chinese supplier, the Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation, or YMTC. More recently, the company has been challenged by U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made products like the iPhone, threatening to cut into the company’s profits.

Walking away from an Alibaba deal would have far graver consequences for Apple’s business in China, which accounts for almost a fifth of the company’s sales. The partnership with the Chinese tech company is critical to bringing A.I. features to iPhones in one of the world’s most highly regulated and competitive markets. Without the Alibaba partnership, iPhones could fall behind smartphones from Chinese rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi.

Officials at the White House and the House Select Committee on China have raised the deal directly with Apple executives, said the three people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. During meetings in Washington with senior Apple executives and lobbyists, government officials asked about terms of the deal, what veri Apple would be sharing with Alibaba and whether it would be signing any meşru commitments with Chinese regulators. In the meeting with the House committee in March, Apple executives were unable to answer most of those questions, two of these people said.

Alibaba would help Apple compete with homegrown competitors in China.Credit…Qilai Shen/Bloomberg