Adds background about Apple's U.S. spending plans, new details on spending with TSMC in Arizona

By Stephen Nellis

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Apple AAPL.O shareholders voted to keep the tech giant's diversity, equity and inclusion policies at an annual meeting on Tuesday, a win for management which had opposed efforts by a conservative group to scrap the program.

The vote was seen as a test of shareholder views about the value of DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement.

A growing conservative backlash has pushed major U.S. companies, including Meta META.O and Alphabet GOOGL.O, to drop DEI initiatives ahead of and following Donald Trump's return to the U.S. presidency. Trump has criticized corporate DEI programs, suggesting the U.S. Department of Justice could investigate whether they violate the law.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as a free-market think-tank, had submitted the proposal titled "Request to Cease DEI Efforts" to the shareholder meeting.

Proponents of the proposal argued that recent legal changes meant Apple would see an increase in discrimination cases if it continued DEI policies. Apple said it had an active oversight effort to avoid legal risks and that the proposal inappropriately restricted management.

Apple shareholders have in the past rejected proposals that would have required the company to disclose more about racial and gender pay gaps. On Tuesday, Cook said Apple has never had quotas or targets in its diversity programs.

"As the legal landscape around these issues evolves, we may need to make some changes to comply, but our North Star of dignity and respect for everyone and our work to that end will never waver," Cook said.

The same group had asked Costco Wholesale to report on the risks of maintaining its DEI initiatives. The membership-only retailer's shareholders voted strongly against the proposal at a meeting in January.

On Monday, Apple highlighted its spending in the United States, saying it planned $500 billion in investments in the next four years, drawing praise from Trump days after media reported that CEO Tim Cook had met with the president.

Apple shareholders also voted against a proposal asking the company to prepare a report assessing the risks of its work with AI, while all management proposals were approved, a preliminary tally of the vote count showed.

Cook said on Tuesday that Apple would be the biggest customer of a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co 2330.TW factory in Arizona that Trump helped bring to the United States during his first term.

(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

((Aditya.Soni@thomsonreuters.com; +91 80 6210 0555;))