Feb 25 (Reuters) - Apple AAPL.O shareholders rejected a proposal against its diversity, equity and inclusion policies at an investor meeting on Tuesday, a major victory for the tech giant 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.
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.
(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
((Aditya.Soni@thomsonreuters.com; +91 80 6210 0555;))
