Apple Announces Another Campus, Promises 20,000 New Jobs For US
Today, Apple announced its plans to accelerate investment in the US economy, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars over the next five years. This investment will take a number of forms, from working on growing its own business to investing in suppliers around the US and even paying a massive tax bill as it looks to repatriate money held overseas. In all, Apple says its contribution to the US economy will total out to $350 billion.
Though Apple is looking to invest that money in a variety of ways, perhaps the biggest will be by opening a new campus to expand its US operations. We don't know when that campus will open or where it will be – that information will come later on this year – but when we count that with investments at existing campuses, Apple says it expects to spend $30 billion on capital expenditures and hire 20,000 people over the next five years.
At first, Apple says this new campus will house its technical support operations. That seems to suggest the campus will either shift in focus or expand further after it opens, but at the moment, details are pretty vague. With that initial focus on technical support, however, it should mean that Apple can build it anywhere in the US and isn't necessarily limited to building in Cupertino. Perhaps we'll see Apple host a bidding war much like Amazon has for the location of its new headquarters?
We also learn that Apple plans to grow its Advanced Manufacturing Fund from $1 billion to $5 billion. Apple points out that the fund was "established to support innovation among American manufacturers and help others establish a presence in the US," and since being announced last spring, it has already backed projects in Kentucky and Texas.
A decent chunk of that money is going to come in a tax payment Apple pays for repatriating overseas money. Under the new tax bill that was passed at the end of 2017, corporations keeping money overseas are given the one-time opportunity to bring that money back into the US while paying a smaller tax bill on it. Apple has so much money in overseas accounts that bringing it back into the US is still going to result in a $38 billion tax bill, which it anticipates as being "the largest of its kind ever made."
It wasn't too long ago that we heard such repatriation could give Apple the funds it needs to purchase Netflix, so we might see some signs of life from a potential buyout once the move is complete. We'll see what else this commitment leads to, but for now, you can read about the company's full vision for the next five years over at the Apple Newsroom.