Apple Plays Politics With Server Farm Announcement 

You know what they say: A server a day keeps the tariffs away. Actually, no one says that, but on Monday, Apple announced it’s planning to open an AI server factory in Texas. 

As well as getting Apple on the AI compute train, the move seemed designed to please the Trump administration, which has been eager to trumpet AI infrastructure as one of its key economic pillars. Good timing too, since Apple is currently under pressure from a politically conservative activist investor.

I’ll Be Your Server

Today, Apple investors will vote on a motion put forward by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR). As you can probably tell from the conspicuously bland name, the NCPPR is a political think tank, and its motion challenges Apple’s continuing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, specifically saying that a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that universities cannot use race-based affirmative action in their admissions process leaves the company legally vulnerable.

Apple is one of the few Big Tech companies to have kept its DEI policies after Trump’s second inauguration. Meta, Amazon, and Google have all scaled back their DEI programs. Amazon scrubbed mention of DEI from its annual report. But with this new server farm announcement, which comes after CEO Tim Cook reportedly paid President Trump a visit (here’s hoping that Trump called him by his real name this time, rather than “Tim Apple”), Apple is looking to raise some political capital:

• Apple has promised that the new server farm will create 20,000 jobs. Overall, Apple said it plans to spend $500 billion in the US over the next four years, spread across different parts of its business (i.e., not just AI). 
• $500 billion is a popular number these days: OpenAI and SoftBank’s announcement of the planned “Stargate” AI infrastructure project had a $500 billion tag on it, although it’s not clear exactly how they plan to raise that cash.

An Embarrassment of Servers: While Apple is pitching its tent in the AI server space, one market leader seems to be pulling back. Microsoft has canceled some leases for US data centers, analysts from investment bank TD Cowen said in a note published Monday. In a post-DeepSeek world, the move raises uncomfortable questions about overcapacity, although the analysts noted it may just be Microsoft rejigging to Oracle servers.