Apple shareholders rejected a proposal against its diversity, equity and inclusion policies at an investor meeting on Tuesday, amid growing backlash against such initiatives in the United States.
The vote was a test of investor views about the value of DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Supreme Court's overturning of affirmative action in June 2023, as well as growing conservative pushback, has led several large U.S. companies, including Meta, Alphabet and Amazon.com, to drop their DEI goals before and after Donald Trump's return to the U.S. presidency.
Apple shareholders also voted against an investor proposal asking the company to prepare assessing the risks of its work with artificial intelligence, while all management proposals were approved, a preliminary tally of the vote count showed.
The proposal against Apple's diversity policies was submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as a free-market think-tank.
The same group had asked Costco Wholesale to report on the risks of maintaining its diversity and inclusion initiatives. The membership-only retailer's shareholders voted strongly against the proposal at a meeting in January.
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