Apple shareholders voted to keep the tech giant's diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a win for management which had opposed efforts by a conservative group to scrap the program. The vote at the iPhone maker's annual meeting was seen as a test of shareholder views about the value of DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement. The proposal drafted by the National Centre for Public Policy Research — a self-described conservative think tank — urged Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives currently in the Trump administration's crosshairs. The outcome vindicated Apple management's decision to stand behind its diversity commitment even though Trump asked the US Department of Justice to look into whether these types of programmes have discriminated against some employees whose race or gender aren't aligned with the initiative's goals. Apple shareholder vote came a month after the same group presented a similar proposal during Costco's annual meeting, only to have it overwhelmingly rejected.

However, CEO Tim Cook conceded Apple may have to make some adjustments to its diversity programme “as the legal landscape changes” while still striving to maintain a culture that has helped elevate the company to its current market value of $3.7 trillion — greater than any other business in the world. In its last diversity and inclusion report issued in 2022, Apple disclosed that nearly three-fourths of its global workforce consisted of white and Asian employees. Nearly two-thirds of its employees were men.

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