What happened
Apple said Monday it would spend $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, including hiring 20,000 new employees and helping build a large server factory in Houston to power its artificial intelligence offerings. President Donald Trump, who met with CEO Tim Cook last week, took credit for Apple’s announcement, suggesting the company “wouldn’t be investing 10 cents” without “faith in what we are doing.”
Who said what
“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our longstanding U.S. investments,” Cook said in a statement. Apple said its “largest-ever spend commitment” would include purchases from U.S. suppliers and production costs for its Apple TV+ streaming service. The “bulk of the money will constitute normal spending for the company,” The Washington Post said, and “much of” the $500 billion was “previously planned investment.”
Cook “knows how to play ball,” Quartz said, and Monday’s announcement was a “clear bid by Apple to help navigate the murkiness of Trump’s trade war with China.” In Trump’s first term, Cook won exemptions from tariffs on iPhones assembled in China, after pledging $350 billion in U.S. investments and 20,000 new jobs. Apple made a similar pledge in 2021, at the start of President Joe Biden’s term.
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What next?
Apple will “continue to make the bulk of what it sells — iPhones, iPads and Macs — in Asia,” The New York Times said, a longtime “point of contention” with Trump.
