Apple (AAPL) on Wednesday announced it is increasing its US investment commitments over the next four years to $600 billion, tacking $100 billion onto the original $500 billion the company said it would invest back in February.
The tech giant revealed its latest spending plan during a press briefing in the Oval Office alongside President Trump, during which CEO Tim Cook presented the president with a glass plaque complete with a gold base, all made in the US.
The move comes after Trump threatened to place a 25% tariff on Apple’s iPhones made overseas and in the face of a potential 100% tariff on semiconductors.
Read more: The latest news and updates on Trump’s tariffs
But during the event, Trump said Apple, as well as other companies that invest in the US, would be exempt from that 100% tariff. The White House also said Wednesday that Apple would largely escape Trump’s planned 50% tariff on US-bound Indian exports.
Apple began building the vast majority of iPhones destined for the US in India after Trump revealed his plans to place tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods, a decision that angered the president.
But $600 billion seems to have wiped away all of those fears. During the press conference Wednesday, Trump largely brushed aside a reporter’s question about whether iPhones will be made in the US, saying that Apple isn’t making the investments that it’s making in the US anywhere else. He later added that the administration may eventually incentivize the company to build in America.
Apple, at least it seems, is clear of those semiconductor tariffs, and it won’t have to worry too much about India’s tariffs.
It’s been a rocky few months for Apple, but it appears its relationship with Trump is back on solid footing, for now.
This isn’t the first time Apple has successfully navigated its relationship with Trump to avoid taking a major financial hit from tariffs. Cook met with Trump a number of times throughout his first term in office and made investment commitments in the US that helped spare Apple from the worst of Trump’s levies.
In 2017, Apple announced its Advanced Manufacturing Fund aimed at investing $1 billion in US companies, including $200 million for Corning’s Harrodsburg, Ky., plant. That’s the same facility Apple committed $2.5 billion to during its press event Wednesday.
In January 2018, as Trump threatened a trade war, Apple again came forward with a plan to invest in the US. This time, the company said it would contribute $350 billion to the economy via new investments and spending at domestic suppliers and manufacturers. The move coincided with Apple repatriating some $250 billion under a tax bill at the time.
