Secret $275 Billion Kowtow to Keep the Machine Running

“Cook had cautiously chosen to broadcast Apple’s $275 billion deal with Beijing quietly, so Cupertino needed to take other action as well. In effect it deployed a two-track approach. The private investment demonstrated its positive impact across multiple industrial clusters, while a second track would more publicly showcase new partnerships, more job creation, and the local R&D hubs. Liu might not have known all the details of Apple’s predicament, but she was no amateur in getting deals done with strategic rivals and potential partners.”

“Just twenty-two days after their meeting, Apple announced a $1 billion investment in the ride-hailing start-up. Liu said it happened “like lightning.” The investment stunned tech observers. Sure, Apple had acquired plenty of companies outright in the past, and it certainly had the cash, but the Cupertino behemoth almost never took a stake in a start-up—especially not an app developer that competed against rivals within its own ecosystem. It was the largest single investment Didi had ever received. Cook’s explanation didn’t exactly hold water: “We are extremely impressed by the business they’ve built and their excellent leadership team, and we look forward to supporting them as they grow.” His comments weren’t wrong so much as beside the point. Hundreds, even thousands of app companies would have been good investments since the App Store debuted in 2008, but Apple hadn’t bought a stake in any. Most observers had an inkling of what was really going on. “The deal seems like a calculated move by Apple to curry favor in China,” wrote *The Information*.”