Apple has announced plans to spend $1bn to build a second campus in Austin, Texas that will house as many as 15,000 workers. The tech giant will also spend another $10bn for new data centres as part of a five-year investment plan aimed at creating 20,000 jobs in the US.
"Apple is proud to bring new investment, jobs and opportunity to cities across the United States and to significantly deepen our quarter-century partnership with the city and people of Austin," Apple CEO Tim Cook says. https://t.co/y5wpBP2ne9 pic.twitter.com/WLYVj03nx0
— ABC News (@ABC) December 13, 2018
The iPhone maker had announced at the start of the year it would invest $30bn in the US, taking advantage of a tax windfall stemming from US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax reforms.
The 133-acre campus in Austin will employ workers across various functions including engineering, R&D, operations and finance. The city is already home to the second largest number of Apple employees outside its headquarters in Cupertino, California.
Apple will also set up sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City, California and hire over 1,000 employees each in these locations, while also expanding operations in Pittsburgh, New York and Boulder, Colorado over the next three years.
Many American multinationals have been facing political pressure to ramp up investments at home as part of Trump’s “America First” policies, which have left the United States embroiled in a bitter trade war with China. The president has also warned of tariffs on iPhones and other Apple products imported from China.
The new Austin campus will be located less than a mile away from Apple’s existing facilities, and will first house 5,000 new employees with the capacity to expand to 15,000.
Leave a Comment