Apple Commits More Than $500 Billion Investment in US

Apple’s new investment was made under the backdrop of an impending U.S. tariff agenda that is set to affect the company’s imports.

An Apple logo hangs at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2024. Noah Berger/AP Photo

Apple announced its “largest-ever” spending commitment that involves investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States to boost manufacturing activities and support a wide range of initiatives, including artificial intelligence (AI) and silicon engineering.

The company said it “plans to spend and invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.”

“The $500 billion commitment includes Apple’s work with thousands of suppliers across all 50 states, direct employment, Apple Intelligence infrastructure and data centers, corporate facilities, and Apple TV+ productions in 20 states,” Apple said in a Feb. 24 statement.

“In the next four years, Apple plans to hire around 20,000 people, of which the vast majority will be focused on R&D, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning.”

As part of these investments, Apple intends to open a new manufacturing facility in Houston. Slated to open next year, the 250,000-square-foot facility is set to build servers, supporting thousands of jobs.

The servers were “previously manufactured outside the U.S.” and will act as the foundation for Private Cloud Compute, a cloud-based AI processing system. It is expected to play a key role in powering Apple Intelligence, the company’s AI offering.

In addition, the tech giant said it plans to continue expanding data-center capacity in Arizona, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, and Oregon.

Apple aims to double its U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Fund, boosting it from $5 billion to $10 billion. Created in 2017, the fund aims to promote “world-class innovation and high-skilled manufacturing jobs across America.”

“To date, Apple’s U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Fund has supported projects in 13 states, including Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Indiana,” Apple stated.

Furthermore, Apple plans to open the Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit, where the company’s engineers, together with experts from top universities, will consult with small and mid-size businesses on implementing artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing techniques.

“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said.

President Donald Trump welcomed Apple’s investment announcement in a Feb. 25 post on social media platform Truth Social, attributing it to the company’s “faith in what [the administration is] doing, without which, they wouldn’t be investing ten cents.”

Tariffs and Investments

Apple’s new investment was made under the backdrop of an impending U.S. tariff agenda that is set to affect the company’s imports.

In early February, the administration imposed an additional 10 percent tariffs on China, a key manufacturing hub for Apple’s products. In addition, Trump has announced plans for reciprocal tariffs on its trading partners, which could affect Apple’s imports from India.

The company manufactures 14 percent of its iPhones in India, with the country’s commerce minister predicting the number to jump to 25 percent in two years.

Apple is the latest business to announce massive investment in the United States under the Trump administration.

A day after he assumed office last month, Trump announced a $500 billion investment to build AI infrastructure in the United States. He was joined by leaders from OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison during the announcement.

The investment is expected to create 100,000 American jobs in the short term. The venture, Stargate, “will immediately start deploying $100 billion,” with the investment hitting $500 billion over the next four years, said Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has committed to investing $600 billion over a four-year period in a bid to boost trade relations between the two nations.

In January, before assuming office, Trump announced a $20 billion foreign investment aimed at building data centers across the United States.

At the time, Emirati billionaire businessman Hussain Sajwani said, “For the last four years, we’ve been waiting for this moment, and we’re planning to invest $20 billion, and even more than that, if the opportunity the market allows us.”

A recent survey from The Conference Board showed that optimism among U.S. CEOs surged in the first quarter of this year from the previous quarter to hit the highest level in three years.

“There was a notable increase in the share of CEOs expecting to increase investment plans and a decline in the share expecting to downsize investment plans,” Stephanie Guichard, senior economist of global indicators at the think tank, said.