Apple doubles down on the United States, promising another $80 billion investment
Apple is doubling down on its manufacturing presence in the United States. The company announced Monday it’s bolstering a previously announced investment by an additional 20% and adding another 20,000 new jobs.
The company said that its investment — now increased to $430 billion — comes as its contributions have “significantly outpaced” its original 2018 commitment of $350 billion to new facilities and the creation of 20,000 jobs. The fresh investment stretches across 9,000 companies in all 50 US states, supporting new technology, including 5G and silicon engineering.
“We’re creating jobs in cutting-edge fields — from 5G to silicon engineering to artificial intelligence — investing in the next generation of innovative new businesses, and in all our work, building toward a greener and more equitable future,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement.
Apple said that the 20,000 new jobs — in addition to the 20,000 jobs Apple previously committed — will be added over the next five years. They will be in Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, New York, California and other states. The company had 147,000 employees as of September 2020.
Another central part of Monday’s announcement is a new campus and engineering hub near Raleigh, North Carolina. The $1 billion investment will create new jobs focusing on machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering, it said.
Apple also pointed out that it’s the “largest taxpayer” in the United States, paying more than $45 billion in domestic corporate income taxes in just the past five years. That topic has become a flashpoint for major corporations as the White House considers raising taxes on them for the first time in more than 25 years.
Notably, Apple’s massive investment comes as its suppliers making similar proclamations are flailing. Last week, Foxconn’s plan for a massive electronics factory in Wisconsin has largely flatlined. The pledged investment of up to $10 billion to create as many as 13,000 jobs is not coming. Rather, it’s creating fewer than 1,500 jobs and incentives package now totals only $80 million.
