(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc., as it seeks relief from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods imported from China, said that it will hire 20,000 new workers and produce AI servers in the US.
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The company said Monday that it plans to spend $500 billion domestically over the next four years, which will include work on a new server manufacturing facility in Houston, a supplier academy in Michigan and additional spending with its existing suppliers in the country. The disclosure comes days after Trump and Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook met in the Oval Office.
“He’s investing hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump said after the meeting last week. He implied that the iPhone maker is investing locally because it does not want to pay tariffs. Trump has threatened an additional 10% tax on items imported from China, where Apple builds the vast majority of iPhones and other products. But he has traded investment in the US for relief in the past.
Trump wrote in a post on his social network Truth Social that Apple was making the investment because of “faith in what we are doing.” Apple didn’t say whether the new investments were already underway before Trump’s win.
The $500 billion investment and 20,000 new jobs over the next four years mark Apple’s biggest US commitment to date. Apple said it hired 20,000 research and development workers over the last five years and said in 2021 it would invest $430 billion locally over the next half-decade.
That means the latest development is a slight acceleration over its prior investments and previously announced plans, adding $39 billion in spend and an additional 1000 jobs annually.
Apple’s shares slid as much as 1.5% in pre-market US trading.
“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing US investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” Cook said in a statement. “We’ll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation.”
During his first administration, Cook was able to successfully sway Trump into sparing the iPhone from tariffs by arguing that the tax would serve to benefit competitors like South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. Apple also made multiple announcements during Trump’s first term about US investments and credited Trump with Mac Pro manufacturing in Texas despite its manufacturing computers there since 2013.
