Tim Cook flew to China for the second time in almost eight months, making a surprise trip to one of Apple's most important markets. The Apple CEO unveiled a flurry of posts on his personal Weibo account showing meetings with university students and local artists.

Chinese consumers have been vocal about their desire to see Apple bring its generative AI services to China as soon as possible.

China requires government approval for the public release of any GenAI software, and so far, the country has only authorised AI tools developed by local firms.