Apple is exploring ways to shift production of its gadgets away from China to minimise geopolitical risks. It is exploring locales such as India and Vietnam, which has seen about a fourfold increase in companies assembling Apple products over the past decade.

Mr Cook said the company wants to further boost quality investment and cooperation activities in Vietnam. The prime minister said the government would set up a dedicated working group to support Apple’s expansion in the country. He also asked Cook for help in developing a high-quality workforce. 

The iPhone maker said the company was increasing its commitments to Vietnam by an unspecified amount. Apple has spent nearly €15bn in the country since 2019 through its supply chain partners, the company said. 

Apple’s partners in Vietnam operate more than 70 factories with more than 250,000 employees. Mr Chinh also asked Apple to encourage its suppliers to tap more Vietnamese companies so they can have a deeper participation in the company’s supply chain, according to the posting.

Mr Cook, who landed in the capital city of Hanoi this week, visited Vietnamese programmers, content creators and singers during his two-day visit to the nation’s capital, local media reported. 

Meanwhile, Intel, another US giant that employs many thousands of people in Ireland, said it would release two artificial intelligence chips with reduced capabilities for the Chinese market, in order to comply with US export controls and sanctions.

Rival Nvidia also has plans for three China-specific chips after the US late last year, tightened a rule capping the capabilities of AI chips that can be shipped to China.

On Tuesday, US trade representative Katherine Tai told US legislators the Biden administration was "taking a serious look" at US trade defence tools to deal with threats posed by China's trade and economic policies, including a review of Trump-era tariffs on Chinese imports. 

• Reuters