Apple Doubles its Donation For China’s Efforts to Battle Coronavirus

Merely weeks after opening all of its retail stores in China, Apple CEO Tim Cook has posted on Weibo that his company has more than doubled its donation for the country’s efforts to fight COVID-19 to over 50 million yuan ($7 million), Reuters is reporting.

Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has also pledged medical supply donations including masks and testing kits, as well as other Chinese tech giants like Baidu, Tencent (0700.HK), Huawei, and ByteDance.

Cook revealed that Apple has already donated 20 million yuan of its promised amount through Beijing-based China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to support six hospitals in Hubei, including the makeshift Leishenshan hospital in Wuhan.

Apple will contribute the rest of the money to support longer-term public health recovery efforts, Cook added.

“China has shown incredible spirit and resilience during the COVID-19 outbreak and we are grateful to our teams, partners and customers for their support during these challenging times,” Cook said in a message on China’s Twitter equivalent Weibo.

Last week, the iPhone maker donated 10 million masks for health professionals in the United States and Europe.