Apple CEO Tim Cook will soon be Executive Chairman and handle government interactions, but that isn’t stopping him from taking a phone call today with a European Commission head over Apple AI in the EU.
WWDC 2026 was focused on system optimization, child safety, and the new Apple Foundation Models. Apple Users in the EU were cut off completely from that last third of the keynote, as those features can’t launch in the region as they exist today.
According to a report from The Financial Times, first shared by 9to5Mac, Apple CEO Tim Cook had a virtual meeting with Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, which reportedly was “constructive.” People familiar with the exchange said that the conversation centered around how Apple might launch its revamped AI tools in the EU without violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
For anyone paying attention, such a phone call was inevitable. It could be months or years of back and forth before Apple and the EU find a compromise here.
What’s actually interesting here is Tim Cook himself being on the other end of the phone. He’s still CEO, but will be stepping down on September 1 to take over as Executive Chairman with John Ternus taking on the CEO role.
Normally, such things would have involved Eddy Cue or a similar senior executive. It seems that Cook is taking on his role as a government liaison sooner than expected.
Of course, Cook has already acted as a buffer between the United States administration and Apple in the past. That role is expanding with his position as Executive Chairman.
It isn’t clear who might budge first in these negotiations. The problem is that Apple likely won’t be materially affected by this delayed launch and the EU seems rather stubborn in its demands.
In the end, it is the Apple customers in the EU that lose the most.
